open letter to Chavez
To all progressive persons and movements,
During the World Social Forum in Caracas, many of us participated in a demonstration called by popular venezuelan organisations (ecological, peasant, community, homeless organisations and the free radio network, among others) in support of the indigenous peoples of the Sierra de Perija : Wayuu, Yukpa and Bari. Many of these had come from the western frontier of Venezuela to oppose new open pit coal mines on their territories. Some of us afterwards went to visit the Wayuu and the local ecological organisations on the spot.
The IIRSA (Initiative for Regional Integration of Infrastructures in South America - a continental mega-plan drawn up by international financial institutions) has forseen the quadrupling of coal extraction in this area. The existing mines have already disastrously poisoned one of the principle rivers (with huge quantities of sulfuric acid and a cocktail of heavy metals) and meant for many Wayuu the expropriation and destruction of their lands. Others survive, surrounded by the mines, and only allowed to leave their communities two days per week !
The new concessions would pollute the two big rivers providing drinking water for the whole region of Maracaibo (two million inhabitants) and irrevocably destroy a tropical paradise. In fact, the Ministry of the Environment, alerted by the indigenous mobilisation, has also opposed the project.
It is precisely because we recognise the remarkable achievements of the Venezuelan government - in particular concerning social rights and local development and autonomy - that we consider that it is essential to support the popular movements that struggle for a real revolution in the conception of " development ". The rights of the peoples and of nature can't be subordinated to short-term mercantile interests, and it is crucial to open a debate concerning the mega-projects inherited from the past, with their potentially disastrous consequences : oil drilling in the Orinoco delta ; the maritime " highway " that would link Orinoco, Amazon and Rio de Plata ; the trans-amazonian gas pipeline...
(see http://www.soberania.org/Articulos/articulo_1965.htm ).
We ask you to sign the following message to President Chavez and to send it to the addresses listed at the end of this message.
In solidarity,
Action Populaire Contre la Mondialisation, Geneva
Hola companero présidente !
During the World Social Forum a fundamental question was raised : will the left-wing governments of Latin America conceive of a new model of development ? Or will they simply inherit the neo-liberal model based on long-distance transport and unbridled energy development, thus sacrificing local communities, the environment and the future ? As the Assembly of Social Mouvements of the WSF underlined, a new model " cannot be based on a purely economic logic... which ignores indigenous, peasant and afro-descendant communities... the present proposal of the IIRSA would create an infrastructural integration that would perpetuate the role of our countries as exporters of raw materials with no added value, worsening each year the problem of natural ressources. "
At the WSF, you spoke of your concern about climate change. Your government has proclaimed the rights of indigenous peoples. In solidarity with the Bari, Yukpa, Anuu and Wayuu peoples of the Socuy, Mache and Cachiri river basins, we urgently ask you to take into account the arguments of the opposition cited below (and the conclusions your own Ministry of the Environment) and therefor to :
- annul the new mining concessions between the Rio Socuy and the Rio de Oro and furnish collective property rights to the indigenous communities of the Sierra de Perija, according to the Law of demarcation and garantee of habitat and lands for indigenous peoples ;
- to open a public and popular debate on the merits of the infrastructural plans of the IIRSA .
In solidarity,
Signed,
With the support of the Bolivarian government, the coal transnationals rob the indigenous of their ancestral lands
The government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is stepping up mining and oil extraction. All the life of the country, its internal and external relations, depend upon this model of an energy exporting enclave. The very existence of the country is founded on oil income, and it is thus submitted to the vagaries of the international market and the interests of the hegemonic world powers.
As well as increasing oil production, the new administration seeks to reply to the global demand for gas and coal. To do so, it is entering into a complex and costly regional infrastructure coordinated internationally by the Plan Puebla Panama (PPP) and the Initiative for Regional Integration of Infrastructures in South America (IIRSA). Consequently, rather than favoring an " endogenous " development, the quality and mode of life of the venezuelan population is adapted to the interests of the energy and mining transnationals.
It is one of the nine axes of integration of the IIRSA proposed by the multilateral institutions, the Axis of Andean Integration (which connects up with the PPP / the USA and Europe), that is the cause of all our struggles to defend the forests and waters of the Sierra de Perija, furthest tip of the Andes range and territory of the Bari, Yukpa, Wayuu ant Anuu indigenous peoples - a country which also has a great potential for tourism. The struggle also concerns the defense of the culture and environment of the islands of the Gulf of Venezuela, where the World Bank proposes to finance the construction of Puerto America (now re-named Puerto Bolivar).
Coal mining is the dynamic behind this final section of the Axis of Andean Integration, called Axis of Western Development where it enters the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. To justify this axis of development requires increasing the extraction of coal in the state of Zulia from 8 million tons a year to 36 million, plus another 4 million tons from the state of Tachira, plus the mining potentially or already operating in north Santander in neighboring Colombia. These projects require new multi-modal infrastructures on the land, rivers and lakes, such as the dredging of the Rio Catatumbo, barge ports on the south of Lake Maracaibo (Encontrado and Santa Rosa), Port Bolivar, train lines, bridges, roads, etc.
Opening new mines all along the foothills of the Perija Sierra, from the Rio Socuy to the Rio de Oro, means reducing even more the ancestral territory of the indigenous, even greater deforestation and the contamination of ten flowing rivers, many of which, like the Socuy, Maché and Cachiri, provide the water behind the Manuelote and Tulé dams, which furnish water for more than two million people.
The ecological organisations and the indigenous authorities of the Bari, Yukpa, Anuu and Wayuu of the Socuy, Maché and Cachiri basins in the state of Zulia are permanently mobilised and request the solidarity of european persons and organisations in the struggle against the opening of new mines, and for the granting of title to the indigenous of lands free from mines and settlers. It is therefor necessary to request President Hugo Chavez to annul all coal concessions between the Rio Socuy and the Rio de Oro, and to pay compensation to the settlers and ranchers for their investments on the ancestral lands auto-demarcated by the indigenous, according to the Law of demarcation and garantee of habitat and lands for indigenous peoples.
Sociedad Homo et Natura
Send to :
Sr. Hugo Chavez, Presidente, Republica Bolivariana de Venezuela : <presidencia
venezuela.gov.ve> ; FAX: +58-212-806-8210
Prof. Lusbi Portillo: homoetnaturacantv.net
Ing. Jacqueline Faria, Ministra del Ambiente : FAX: +58 212 408 1024 ; Email: jfariamarn.gob.ve
Ambassador Bernardo Alvarez, Washington DC, USA : FAX: 202 342-6820 ; Email: nfaniembavenez-us.org