Report on a new Massacre among the Yanomami of Venezuela‏

Statement of the Indigenous Organizations of Amazonas State (COIAM) about the new MASSACRE OF INDIGENOUS YANOMAMI in the IROTATHERI Community committed by Brazilian illegal miners

On the 27th of August 2012, we, indigenous peoples and communities of the Venezuelan Amazon, grouped in the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of Amazonas (COIAM), represented by the Organización Regional de Pueblos Indígenas de Amazonas (ORPIA), the Organización Indígena Piaroa Unidos del Sipapo (OIPUS), the Organización Ye ́kuana del Alto Ventuari (KUYUNU), the Organización Indígena Jivi Kalievirrinae (OPIJKA), the Organización Yanomami (HORONAMI), the Organización Mujeres Indígenas de Amazonas (OMIDA), the Organización de Comunidades indígenas Huôttuja del Sector Parhuaza (OCIUSPA), the Asociación de Maestros Piaroa (Madoya Huarijja), the Organización Piaroa del Cataniapo “Reyö Aje”, the Organización Indígena de Río Negro (UCIABYRN), the Organización Piaroa de Manapiare, the Organización Ye ́kuana del Alto Orinoco (KUYUJANI Originario), the Movimiento Político Pueblo Unido Multiétnico de Amazonas (PUAMA), who met in Puerto Ayacucho, wish to make the following statement about the NEW MASSACRE OF INDIGENOUS YANOMAMI that occurred in the IROTATHERI community, Alto Orinoco Municipality, commited by illegal miners from Brazil, information about which was provided by survivors and witnesses during the month of August 2012:

1.   We express our solidarity with the Yanomami people in Venezuela and their organization HORONAMI, who were the victims in the month of July 2012 of a NEW MASSACRE THAT OCCURRED IN THE IROTATHERI COMMUNITY, located in the headwaters of the Ocamo River, Alto Orinoco Municipality and the area of influence of various Yanomami communities, MOMOI, HOKOMAWE, USHISHIWE and TORAPIWEI, which have been attacked and invaded by illegal miners from Brazil (GARIMPEIROS) for more than 4 years. 

2.  We profoundly regret this new violent attack against the Yanomami people, in which an unknown number of persons were killed, with 3 survivors in a community (shapono) of approximately 80 Yanomami in the Alto Ocamo, who were fired upon and attacked with firearms and explosives according to testimony from the survivors and witnesses who moved to the Parima “B” community between the 15th and 20th of August of 2012, where they transmitted their tragic testimony to members of the HORONAMI organization and Venezuelan authorities of the 52 Army Brigade and the Centro Amazónico de Investigación y Control de Enfermedades Tropicales (CAICET).

3.   We express our deep concern that from 2009 onwards various agencies of the Venezuelan State were informed about the presence of GARIMPEIROS in the Alto Ocamo and diverse instances of aggression against the communities of MOMOI and HOKOMAWE who were the victims of physical violence, threats, abuse of women and contamination of water by mercury which resulted in the deaths of various Yanomami without having TAKEN EFFECTIVE MEASURES TO EVICT THE GARIMPEIROS FROM THE ZONE or designing a plan for monitoring and control over their cyclical entry to the zone in moments when there are reports of an increase in illegal mining throughout the Brazilian Amazon.

4.   This situation not only affects the rights to LIFE, PHYSICAL INTEGRITY and THE HEALTH OF THE YANOMAMI PEOPLE, but constitutes a new genocide and a new threat to the physical and cultural survival of the Yanomami, at the moment of the twentieth anniversary in 2013, of the Massacre of HAXIMÚ in which 16 women, children and elderly Yanomami were murdered.

5.   We call upon the National Government and agencies of the Venezuelan State to initiate an URGENT JUDICIAL INVESTIGATION, its IMMEDIATE MOVEMENT TO THE LOCATION OF THE EVENTS and THE ADOPTION OF BILATERAL MEASURES WITH BRAZIL for the monitoring and control of the entrance of garimpeiros in the ALTO OCAMO, the site of the massacre and where Yanomami are threatened by the uncontrolled actions of illegal miners (garimpeiros). We recall that the failure to investigate and take effective measures in the case of HAXIMÚ, could compromise the international responsibilities of the Venezuelan State, by permitting that external agents physically attack Venezuelan nationals in its territory.

Organización Regional de Pueblos Indígenas de Amazonas (ORPIA)

Organización Indígena Piaroa Unidos del Sipapo (OIPUS)

Organización Ye ́kuana del Alto Ventuari (KUYUNU)

Organización Indígena Jivi Kalievirrinae (OPIJKA)

Organización Yanomami (HORONAMI)

Organización Mujeres Indígenas de Amazonas (OMIDA)

Organización de Comunidades indígenas Huôttuja del Sector Parhuaza (OCIUSPA)

Asociación de Maestros Piaroa (Madoya Huarijja)

Organización Yekuana del Alto Orinoco (KUYUJANI Originario)

Organización Piaroa del Cataniapo “Reyö Aje”

Organización Indígena de Río Negro (UCIABYRN)

Organización Piaroa de Manapiare,

Organización Yabarana del Parucito (OIYAPAM)

Movimiento Político Pueblo Unido Multiétnico de Amazonas (PUAMA)

José Gregorio Díaz Mirabal Vice-Coordinador CONIVE

Guillermo Guevara (Constituyente Indígena 1999)