Indigenous peoples reject imposed Caura National Park in Venezuela

Venezuela: The indigenous peoples of the Caura River in South Venezuela, the Ye’kwana and Sanema, through their organisation Kuyuhani have rejected the imposition of a national park on their lands. The protected area which was announced in the Official Gazette in March 2017 embraces the whole of the Caura Basin, which is one of the largest areas of relatively pristine forests left in the Orinoco watershed. The same area has been subject to an indigenous land claim since the late 1990s, which was formally registered as an official claim for a ‘habitat’ (territory) since 2002 after an exhaustive process of mapping, historical, legal and ethnographic substantiation and even after being formally approved and forwarded by the Attorney General’s Office for titling. In the statement, the Yekwana and Sanema of the 48 communities of the river basin note that the unilateral imposition of the protected area violates their rights to their lands and territory, which are upheld by the Constitution and laws of Venezuela. They note that they were never consulted about the proposal, in violation of their right to free, prior and informed consent. The protected area would also limit their own way of life and usurps their authority to manage and control their ancestral area. Once again they call for the recognition of their collective rights to their territory and for the expulsion of illegal miners and armed groups who operate in the area with impunity to the detriment of the indigenous peoples.