Venezuela: National Meeting in Defence of the Gran Sabana and Sierra de Imataca

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The Penon indigenous peoples of Venezuela are inviting to a meeting which will be held at Kumarakapay (San Francisco de Yuruani), la Gran Sabana, on June 25 - 28. The idea is to bring together all those wishing to defend the ancestral rights of indigenous peoples to their territory, cultural identity and self determination rights, and to protect the environment.

The Penon are being threatened by the recently subscribed Protocol of Guzmania, agreed between the governments of Brazil and Venezuela, according to which a Venezuela-Brazil power transmission line will cross their territories. This Protocol ignores that such territories are a Colective Property of the Indigenous Peoples and therefore violates Art. 11 of Convention 107 of the International Labour Organization, subscribed by Venezuela in 1983. It also violates Art 77 of the National Constitution.

The construction of the transmission line will not only generate environmental impacts on itself, but will also pave the way for a destructive development model involving logging, mining, oil exploration and urban development which will deplete the local natural resources and have grave cultural impacts on the local indigenous peoples.

Source: AMIGRANSA 28/5/98. For further information about the meeting, please contact AMIGRANSA