Brazilian Prospectors Said To Raze Native Village

As many as 80 Yanomami Indians are feared dead in a village deep in the jungles of Venezuela, victims of an alleged massacre carried out last month by Brazilian gold prospectors.

According to a criminal complaint filed this week with prosecutors and military authorities in Puerto Ayacucho, capital of the state of Amazonas, the incident occurred on July 5th at the native settlement of Irotatheri at the headwaters of the Ocamo River in Venezuela’s remote Upper Orinoco region.

The charges indicate that the gold prospectors may have arrived by helicopter, illegally entering Venezuela from Brazil to carry out the raid. Details were provided by three survivors who had gone out hunting early that morning and were away from the shabano – a circular communal structure typical of a Yanomami village – when the attack occurred.

“Survivors of the community who were in the jungle heard gunfire, explosions and even a helicopter in which the miners landed,” Luis Shatiwe, executive secretary of Horonami, the Yanomami rights organization that filed the complaint, told reporters. Witnesses from a neighboring village are said to have seen charred bodies and the burned remains of the shabano.

The presence of Brazilian garimpeiros – or wildcat prospectors – in the headwaters of the Ocamo River has been extensively documented since 2009, when several community members were sickened, apparently by mercury poisoning. Mercury is commonly used by miners to separate gold from ore in the field, creating a serious health hazard in wide stretches of the Amazon rainforest.

Brazilian prospectors have been invading Yanomami lands on both sides of the thinly-patrolled border for the past several decades. Roundups and crackdowns by police and military temporarily interrupt the operations, but enforcement efforts are stymied by the vast distances and a lack of resources committed to safeguard the rugged upland forest region.

The ongoing presence of miners in the region has sown strife among natives suffering from disease, despoiled forests and rapidly changing social mores.

“This is a slaughter against the Yanomami people,” said Shatiwe.

Scott Wallace writes about the environment and indigenous affairs for National Geographic and other publications. He is the author of The Unconquered: In Search of the Amazon’s Last Uncontacted Tribes. For more information, please visit www.scottwallace.com.

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Yanomami Indians ‘massacred’ by goldminers in Venezuela

Survival International Press Release

29 August 2012

Goldminers in Venezuela have carried out a ‘massacre’ of isolated Yanomami Indians, according to reports received by Survival International.

Witnesses of the aftermath described finding ‘burnt bodies and bones’ when they visited the community of Irotatheri in the country’s Momoi region, close to the border with Brazil.

Initial reports suggest up to 80 people have been killed, but these numbers are impossible to confirm. Only three survivors have been found.

The attack is believed to have happened in July, but news is only just emerging.

Due to the community’s remote location, it took the Indians who discovered the bodies days to walk to the nearest settlement to report the tragedy.

Luis Shatiwe Yanomami, a leader of the Yanomami organisation Horonami, was in Parima and spoke to the Indians about what they saw. He heard how those who survived had been hunting at the time the community’s communal house was set alight.

He told Survival today, ‘For three years we have been denouncing the situation. There are lots of goldminers working illegally in the forest.’

Speaking to Survival today, Eliseo, a Yanomami man from the region who has spoken to the Indians who discovered the massacre’s aftermath, said, ‘They reported seeing charred bodies and bones, and the burnt remains of the shabono (communal house).’

Massacres against Yanomami Indians are not uncommon. In 1993, 16 Indians were killed after miners attacked the Yanomami community of Haximu in Brazil. Several miners were subsequently convicted of genocide. So far, there has been no investigation into this latest attack.

Stephen Corry, Director of Survival said, ‘This is another appalling tragedy for the Yanomami – heaping crime upon crime. All Amazonian governments must stop the rampant illegal mining, logging and settlement in indigenous territories. It inevitably leads to massacres of Indian men, women and children. The Venezuelan authorities must now bring the killers to swift justice, and send a signal throughout the region that Indians can no longer be killed with impunity. The mining and logging must be stopped.’

Note to Editors:

Survival’s Research Director Fiona Watson has over 25 years’ experience working with Indians including the Yanomami, and is available for interview.

Read the Yanomami tribe’s appeal to the Venezuelan authorities for an urgent investigation. (in Spanish, pdf, 2.1 MB)

Read this online: http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/8626

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Declaration from Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon regarding the
Yanomami Massacre

On the day of August 27th, 2012, gathered in the City of Puerto Ayacucho, we the Indigenous peoples and communities of the Venezuelan Amazon together as the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon (COIAM), made up of the Regional Organization of Indigenous Peoples of the Amazon (ORPIA), the Indigenous Organization United Piaroa of Sipapo (OIPUS), the Ye´kuana Organization of the Upper Ventuari (KUYUNU), the Indigenous Organization Jivi Kalievirrinae (OPIJKA), the Yanomami Organization (HORONAMI), the Organization of Indigenous Women of the Amazon (OMIDA), the Organization of Indigenous Huôttuja Communities of the Parhuaza Sector (OCIUSPA), the Association of Piaroa Teachers (Madoya Huarijja), the Piaroa Organization of Cataniapo “Reyö Aje”, the Indigenous Organization of the Negro River (UCIABYRN), the Piaroa Organization of Manapiare, the Ye´kuana Organization of the Upper Orinoco (KUYUJANI Originario), Yabarana Organization of Parucito (OIYAPAM), the Political Movement- Multi- Ethnic People United of the Amazon (PUAMA), make the following declaration in rejection of the most recent MASSACRE OF INDIGENOUS YANOMAMI PEOPLE which took place in the community of IROTATHERI, Municipality of Alto Orinoco, committed by illegal miners from Brazil.

This information was shared by the survivors and witnesses during the month of August 2012:

1. We stand in solidarity with the Yanomami People in Venezuela and their organization HORONAMI, who was victimized in the month of July 2012, due to the most RECENT MASSACRE IN THE COMMUNITY OF IROTATHERI, located in the headwaters of the Ocamo River, Municipality of Alto Orinoco. The area of the massacre is within the area of influence of various Yanomami communities such as; MOMOI, HOKOMAWE, USHISHIWE and TORAPIWEI, of which all have been attacked, assaulted and invaded by illegal miners from Brazil (GARIMPEIROS) during the last 4 years.

2. We mourn this most recent violent attack against the Yanomami people that left an amount of dead that has not been completely determined but there are 3 survivors accounted for of approximately 80 Yanomami people who lived in the community Shapono in the Upper Ocamo. According to witness and survivor testimonies, Shapono was burnt and attacked with firearms and explosives. Witnesses and survivors were relocated to the community of Parima “B” between August 15th – 20th, 2012, where they informed of the tragic events to members of the organization HORONAMI, Venezuelan Authorities of the 52nd Brigade of the National Army and the Center for Investigation and Control of Tropical Diseases (CAICET).

3. We express our preoccupation that as of the year 2009 various entities of the Venezuelan State have been informed about the presence of GARIMPEIROS in the Upper Ocamo and about the different aggressions that have perpetuated against the communities of MOMOI and HOKOMAWE. These communities have been victims of physical violence, threats, gender violence and contamination of their water from the use of mercury that has left a number of Yanomami dead. None the less NO MEASURES WERE TAKEN TO REMOVE THE GARIMPEIROS FROM THE AREA or to create and implement a control plan regarding their access and mobility in the region when there has been an known increase in illegal mining in all of the Brazilian Amazon.

4. This situation does not only affect the rights to LIFE, PHYSICAL INTEGRITY AND HEALTH OF THE YANOMAMI PEOPLE, but also constitutes a new genocide and threat to the physical and cultural survival of the Yanomami. In this very moment when next year marks the 20th anniversary of the Massacre of HAXIMÚ in which 16 Yanomami women, children and elders were killed.

5. We solicit the National Government and other entities of the Venezuelan State to immediately OPEN A CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION, TO COME TO THE PLACE OF THE MASSACRE AND TO ADOPT BILATERAL AGREEMENTS WITH BRAZIL to control and watch the movement of garimpeiros in the Upper Ocamo, the place of the massacre and presence of Yanomami threatened by the uncontrolled actions of the garimpeiros. We remind that the failure to investigate and take the necessary measures as a result of the case of HAXIMÚ, could compromise the international responsibility of the Venezuelan State, for allowing foreign agents to attack Venezuelan nationals in their own territory.

Regional Organization of Indigenous Peoples of the Amazon (ORPIA)
Indigenous Organization United Piaroa of Sipapo (OIPUS)
Ye´kuana Organization of the Upper Ventuari (KUYUNU)
Indigenous Organization Jivi Kalievirrinae (OPIJKA)
Yanomami Organization (HORONAMI)
Organization of Indigenous Women of the Amazon (OMIDA)
Organization of Indigenous Huôttuja Communities of the Parhuaza Sector
(OCIUSPA)
Association of Piaroa Teachers (Madoya Huarijja)
Piaroa Organization of Cataniapo “Reyö Aje”
Indigenous Organization of the Negro River (UCIABYRN)
Piaroa Organization of Manapiare
Ye´kuana Organization of the Upper Orinoco (KUYUJANI Originario)
Yabarana Organization of Parucito (OIYAPAM)
Political Movement- Multi-Ethnic People United of the Amazon (PUAMA)
José Gregorio Díaz Mirabal. Vice-Cordinator CONIVE
Guillermo Guevara, (Indigenous Consituent 1999)