Summary
The aim of this paper is
to demonstrate a fact that is of indisputable value to those interested
in the topic of indigenous peoples of Venezuela and the Americas. This
fact is one that is not solely of juridical importance as it also has implications
for the political, economic and social aspects where Venezuela’s first
inhabitants are concerned.
With the adoption of the
new Constitution of 1999, justice has been established, having been systematically
violated not just since the ‘discovery’ and the aftermath of the dominant
society’s subsequent conquest, but also since the country obtained independence
from the Spanish colonial yoke in its establishment as a Republic. With
the violation of the first Constitution of 1811 by the new owners of the
Republic, who ruled it in order to appropriate all available arable land,
the rights of Venezuela’s aboriginal peoples were totally dismissed. Their
rights to live in their own lands, to maintain their cultures and customs,
were completely violated and unrecognized.
With the new Constitution
of 1999, the inalienable rights of the indigenous peoples of the country
have been recognized, as well as establishing the bases for an equitable
development of the surviving ethnic groups in order to save their customs,
culture, cosmology and medicine, and grants then the right to access the
cultural goods of the wider creole society. Indigenous peoples’ habitats
and knowledge are to be respected, whilst putting a stop to the depredation
of their places which, for thousands of years, have been the basis for
their development as human beings.
Introduction
The new situation that has
been created since the definitive recognition of the rights of the indigenous
peoples, occasioned by the promulgation in 1999 of the Bolivarian Constitution
of Venezuela, is, in our opinion, an act of justice and a statement of
intent. The aim is to make reparation for the atrocities which, with the
foundation of the old Laws of the Indies and the laws of the Republic,
especially those coming into effect from 1882 which, in one fell swoop,
erased all the rights acquired by the first inhabitants of the country
since Spanish colonization.
The dominant creole society,
which is composed by a wide mixture of peoples (indigenous, European, and
African) appropriated the lands of indigenous peoples, first by force and
violence, and later with the displacements caused by land hungry agricultural
migrants. Large land owners, with or without title, advanced and thus occupied
lands in the plains and in the environs of cities, where cultivation was
fruitful and cattle ranching extensive, pushing away those nearby at their
whim.
As we shall see, with the
new governments that came to power after Independence, the majority of
them headed by tyrants, a new element was minted, that is to say, they
consecrated in new laws in 1884, 1895 and 1904, a novel notion: they limited
protected territories and recognized as indigenous only those nations living
in Guajira and in the Amazon Territory, thereby declaring as vacant waste
lands those occupied by the Warao in the (Orinoco) Delta, as affirmed by
Filadelfo Morales (1989), an anthropologist. These areas were in the Guajira
peninsula located in the western region of the Republic on the border with
Colombia, land occupied by what were generally called the Guagiro Indians.
As for the Amazon Territory of the upper Orinoco, these were areas populated
by various indigenous ethnic groups, whose habitat was shaped by the large
and impenetrable forests, and the Warao who, for many centuries, inhabited
the Orinoco Delta in the extreme east of the country, a territory that
was difficult and inhospitable to non-indigenous life ways.
Further on in the twentieth
century, with the Agrarian Reform Law promulgated in 1960 where legislators
classified indigenous peoples simply and merely as “peasants”, what resulted
and what was enabled was that which the author Morales (cited above) characterized
as “an indigenist theory that was internally contradictory”, which
posed, “a liberationist indigenism in opposition to a colonizing indigenism
as that which was dominant in official policy and characterized by a negation
of the indigenous”. Further on he explains how, “this liberationist indigenism
made itself contradictory by rejecting the model of capitalist development
at a conceptual level, and yet, later affirming that changes in patterns
of traditional indigenous land ownership were to be made precisely according
to the norms of the capitalist model that had been presumably rejected”
(Morales 1979: 65).
Changes in Venezuelan policy
have been put into effect since 1999, via the convocation of a Constituent
Assembly. During the course of the wide and popular participation of organized
indigenous bodies in that Assembly, a new article was discussed and approved,
that is, “Chapter VIII: On the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples”, which
now forms part of the current Constitution of the Republic.
In the face of this new juridical
reality, with wide recognition of the rights of indigenous people, the
bases have been laid for a rectification of the atrocities and injustices
committed by the creole society against indigenous Venezuelans. It may
be the start of reparation for the damages inflicted on defenseless beings,
whose right to maintain their culture had been denied as well as their
ecological habitats (worthy of emulation), to develop according to their
own patterns, to maintain their native languages, and, in the end, to live
according to their own ways, and to respect and give them the place that
they deserve.
It is within this frame of
reference, and with the objective of informing the many Venezuelans and
international researchers interested in this topic, that we have opted
to present in this work this new reality that that has started to introduce
substantive changes in the relations between the creole society and the
surviving indigenous ethnic groups.
The Reality
of Five Centuries
The coming of the Spaniards
to this territory at the end of the 15th century, acting in the name of
the Catholic monarchs, King Ferdinand VII and Isabella the Catholic, heralded
the invasion of the new lands of the Americas, bursting forth with guns
in hand. This was a period whose principal characteristic was that of colonization,
practiced not only by Spain as in these enterprises of colonial conquest
but also by the monarchs of Portugal, England, France, Belgium and Holland
who forcefully occupied lands in the Americas, the Caribbean, Africa, Asia
and Oceania.
One of the most incisive
historians of Venezuela, Dr. José Gil Fortoul, emphasized: “The
conquerors, occupied in making discoveries and conducting warfare, helped
themselves to the labour of Indians in order to work the land, exploit
the mines, dive for pearls, and to transport all manner of things, because
in America no other beasts of burden existed” (Gil F 1954 Vol. 1:76).
In the first Constitution
of the Republic of Venezuela in 1811, in Chapter IX, General Outline, Article
200 begins by stating:
“As for that part of the
Citizenry that up to today has been denominated Indian, they have not obtained
any appreciable benefit of any of the laws which the Spanish Crown had
promulgated in their favour, as those in charge of governance in these
territories practiced forgetfulness in executing these laws. The bases
of the system of government adopted by Venezuela in this Constitution are
none other than those rooted in justice and equality. It especially empowers
provincial Governments which must apply their effort and care in order
to secure the enlightenment of all citizens of the State, allocating amongst
them schools, academies and colleges, where all those who wish may learn
the principles of Religion, moral integrity, politics, and from the arts
and sciences acquire all that which useful and necessary for the prosperity
of our peoples, and to procure, by all available means, the necessary media
for attracting said natural Citizens to these homes of enlightenment and
learning/.../so that they may not remain any longer isolated and even timid
in dealing with other people. From this point onwards it is prohibited
that they are to apply themselves involuntarily in lending their services
to the Lieutenants and priests of their parishes, nor to any other person,
and they are permitted to hold the lands which were conceded to them. On
these lands, the male heads of families amongst these peoples may divide
and dispose of them as the real lords of the land, according to the terms
and regulations which underpin the provincial Governments”.
In Article 201 it was decided:
“All laws passed by the
previous regime, which instituted certain tribunals and established protectors
for these natural citizens, granting them thus nothing more than the status
of minors, supposedly under the guise of protecting them but which acted
to treat them in an extremely prejudicial manner, as experience has shown,
are hereby revoked and rendered without any value. Decreed in the Federal
Palace of Caracas, 21st of December, in the year of our lord 1811, the
first year of our Independence. Juan Toro, President” (Colección
de Leyes y Reglamentos de la República de Venezuela, Tomo I).
This is to say that the founders
of the new Republic concerned themselves with the welfare of indigenous
peoples, and recognized them as citizens equal to all others, whilst also
effectively reversing the legal dispositions and above all the acts of
tribunals which granted indigenous lands to Spanish colonists and come
Creoles who has usurped said indigenous properties. Moreover, what was
established was a prohibition that they continue to serve as slaves to
the wider society, whether to lay people or clerics, as aboriginal labour
power. Finally, indigenous rights over their ancestral lands were recognized.
At the height of the War
for Independence in 1817, Simón Bolívar the Liberator dictated
a Decree of expropriation which sought to put an end to the abuses committed
during that war by the Spanish authorities and above all the generals who
still defended the rights of the Crown in expropriating the goods and properties
of the patriots. This Decree stated:
“Simón Bolívar,
Supreme Chief of the Republic, Captain General of the Armies of Venezuela
and New Granada. Considering: That the excessive generosity with which
the most zealous partisans of the Spanish have been treated for their bearing
the title of Americans, has not been sufficient to inspire in them
sentiments worthy of such a glorious name. I have thus come to adopt with
respect to these enemies, even though without as much rigour, the principles
established by the enemy for sequestering and confiscating the goods and
properties of the patriots, and I thus decree the following:
“Section 1: Sequester and
Confiscation.
“Article 1: All the goods
and properties, furnishings and real estate of whatever sort, and the credit,
shares, and corresponding rights of the persons of one sex or another that
have followed the enemy in evacuating this country or that have taken active
service with the enemy, are hereby forfeited and confiscated, in favour
of the State, and will later be put up for auction, lease or deposit, depending
on their nature/.../
“Article 5: All the estates
and properties of whatever sort belonging to the Capuchin fathers and other
missionaries who have made vows of poverty will now be confiscated by the
State.
“Article 6: Also to be confiscated
are all the properties of the Government of Spain and its vassals, being
out of their country of residence.
“Article 7: All the properties
that were sequestered and confiscated from the patriots by the Government
of Spain will be seized and administered by the State, until that time
when their old former owners or their heirs present themselves, and it
will be decided from their past conduct whether or not they deserve the
protection of the government/.../Presented in Antigua Guayana, 3rd of September
of 1817. Simón Bolívar”. (Armellada, Fray C – 1977:22-24).
This last Decree created
a crack in the Spanish system of usurping property, including the lands
of Catholic missions, as well as the lands of Creoles who were loyal to
the Spanish Crown.
However, let it be said that
throughout the duration of the 19th century, these ideals of the Constitution
of 1811 were continually violated by the new creole society. On the one
hand, these new creole leaders took advantage of their status, derived
from the glories of having liberated Venezuela from the Spanish yoke, and
on the other hand, due to the fact that aboriginals were largely unaware
and not versed in the dominant language and, of course, in the customs
and laws of creole society. As a result, the bases were laid for the establishment
of the giant estates (latifundios) which even in the 21st century continue
to exist.
Such was the yearning to
own lands on the part of creole society that, in 1882, during the government
of General Antonio Guzmán Blanco, who was branded Illustrious American,
the Congress of the time decreed a new law (dated 2nd of June), which totally
overthrew all that which had been legally secured in favour of indigenous
peoples. Allow me to quote:
“Article 1: Within the borders
of the Nation, no indigenous communities are to be recognized as such except
for those of the Amazon Territory, the Upper Orinoco and La Goajira, whose
territories will in any event be ruled and governed by the Federal Executive.
“Article 2: From this point
forwards all the old indigenous reserves are abolished in the Republic,
as well as each and every one of the privileges and exemptions which the
Laws of the Indies established for the reduction and civilization of the
indigenous tribes.
“Article 3: Hereby declared
defunct is the Law of the 7th of April of 1882 which allowed the descendants
of aboriginals to proceed with the division of their reserves; no Tribunal
of the Republic will allow proceedings to be launched whose object is the
exercise of those rights which the present Law has declared defunct.
“Article 4: In the territories
of the Upper Orinoco, Amazon, and La Goajira, the National Executive concedes
to each indigenous family the right to submit themselves voluntarily to
the established regime in order that may partake of civilized life. They
will be permitted a perimeter of up to 25 hectares of unoccupied land,
without any further formalities attached to this concession, and in accordance
with the Law which regulates the administration and adjudication of lands
belonging to the State” (Quoted by Morales 1999:72 from Ministerio de Justicia
1954:165-166).
Morales notes that, “the
laws of June 1884, May 1885, and of April 1904, are faithful copies of
that of 1882 just cited, in that they limited the territory of the ‘reserves’
and recognized as indigenous only those nations which were living in La
Guajira and the Amazon, decreeing as unoccupied the lands held by the Warao
in the Delta (of the Orinoco), those held by the Kari’ña in the
state of Sucre, Anzoátegui y Monagas, and of all the indigenous
peoples in the states of Bolívar, Guayana and Apure, which these
laws declared to be non-existent” (Morales 1999:72-73).
With the discovery of petroleum,
starting in 1910 under the dictatorship of General Juan Vicente Gómez,
a fortunate peasant who rose to power via a bloodless coup d’etat against
his former chief, General Cipriano Castro, a new chapter in the history
of the country’s economy was written. Those close to the President lost
no time in connecting themselves with the employees of the Ministry that
was in charge of selling land concessions for English and U.S. enterprises,
in order to voraciously acquire all those lands which the Government would
grant. This sequence of events was that which permitted the formation of
great fortunes for various Venezuelan families who, alleging that they
were the owners of certain lands would thus cash in on their sale even
though they had acquired these lands in many cases even before they were
officially granted.
Examples of these happenings,
as well the countless fights that were occasioned by them especially in
the eastern zones of the country where many reserves of crude oil were
to be found, are documented in the works of the anthropologist Filadelfo
Morales, amongst others, especially with reference to the case of the Kari’ña
people located in the state of Anzoátegui.
In the middle of the 20th
century, with the advent of a democratic government, the Congress of the
Republic decreed the 1960 Law of Agrarian Reform, which “declares in plain
language that the indigenous peoples are peasants, thus automatically subject
to the Agrarian Reform; they are labeled as such in the indigenista documents
of the National Agrarian Institute (IAN) and by the Federation of Peasants
which, in its second annual convention in 1975, also declared that 90%
of the indigenous peoples were peasants” (Morales 1999:73).
This transformation in the
ways in which indigenous peoples were to be viewed, which on the surface
seemed well intentioned, was of course produced without the consent or
involvement of any indigenous organization and served to end the rights
of aboriginal Venezuelans to use their ancestral lands in accordance with
their own traditions.
Indigenous
Peoples and the New Constitution of the Republic
With the democratic elections
of 1998 in Venezuela, a profound change in the country’s social, political
and economic relations took place. A National Constituent Assembly was
convoked by democratic means and it drafted a new Constitution which, in
our opinion, not only changed the correlation of social forces but also,
with respect to indigenous peoples, entails a profound transformation in
the relationships between creole society and indigenous peoples.
In the Explanation of Motives
for the Bolivarian Constitution of Venezuela, with reference to Chapter
VIII On the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples, it is noted:
“Today in Venezuela there
live groups whose existence precedes the arrival of the first Europeans,
groups that can be found all over the Americas, groups that denominated
indigenous peoples within the formation of nation-states. For thousands
of years their ancestors occupied these lands, and had developed forms
of social, political, economic, and cultural organization along with languages
and technologies quite different to those known to Europeans of the time.
After the invasion, conquest and colonization by Europeans, indigenous
peoples heroically defended their lands and lives.
“For 500 years they have
continued their resistance and struggle for full recognition of their existence
as peoples, as well as their land rights, which today materialize with
the re-founding of our Republic.
“By the same token, and as
a consequence of this struggle and their particularly vulnerable situation,
the specific and special rights of indigenous peoples have been internationally
recognized.
“This very recognition as
contained in the Constitution implies a profound transformation in political
and cultural perspectives that reorient the conduct of the Venezuelan State
in recognizing its own multiethnic, pluricultural and multilingual character/.../
“On this basis, the Chapter
that refers to the rights of indigenous peoples gives wide recognition
to the existence of the indigenous peoples, their organizational forms,
cultures and their own languages, as well as their habitats and ancestral
rights to the lands which they have traditionally occupied and which are
indispensable in guaranteeing their biological and sociocultural continuity,
lands which also carry a sacred status. All of this implies a profound
change in the political and juridical perspective governing the country.
“It is thus established that
indigenous lands are inalienable, cannot be sold and non-transferable and
it is up to the State jointly with indigenous peoples to demarcate said
lands. A law will develop the specifics of such demarcation procedures
with the aim of protecting the collective lands of the indigenous peoples
and communities that inhabit them/.../
“As part of the valorisation
of the indigenous cultural patrimony, the State recognizes the traditional
medical practices of the indigenous peoples, which up until the present
have gone unrecognized or dismissed/.../
“The indigenous peoples have
the right to maintain and promote their economic practices, and, as a result,
no development plans and projects alien to their interests and needs will
be imposed” (Gaceta Oficial de la República Bolivariana de
Venezuela - N° 5453 Extraordinario – 24 de marzo del 2000).
However, I believe that it
will be of greater value for the knowledge of the reader to reproduce in
whole, “Chapter VIII, On the Rights of Indigenous Peoples”, in the aforesaid
Constitution of 1999:
Article 119: The State recognizes
the existence of indigenous peoples and communities, their social, political
and economic organization, their cultures, practices and customs, languages
and religions, as well as their habitat and original rights to the lands
they ancestrally and traditionally occupy, and which are necessary to develop
and guarantee their way of life. It shall be the responsibility of the
National Executive, with the participation of the native peoples, to demarcate
and guarantee the right to collective ownership of their lands, which shall
be inalienable, not subject to the law of limitations and nontransferable,
in accordance with this Constitution and the law.
Article 120: Exploitation
by the State of the natural resources in indigenous habitats shall be carried
out without harming the cultural, social and economic integrity of such
habitats, and likewise subject to prior information and consultation with
the indigenous communities concerned. Profits from such exploitation by
the indigenous peoples are subject to the Constitution and the law.
Article 121: Indigenous peoples
have the right to maintain and develop their ethnic and cultural entity,
world view, values, spirituality and sacred places of worship. The State
shall promote the appreciation and dissemination of the cultural manifestations
of the indigenous peoples, who have the right to their own education, and
an education system of an intercultural and bilingual nature, taking into
account their special social and cultural characteristics, values and traditions.
Article 122: Indigenous peoples
have the right to a full health system that takes into consideration their
practices and cultures. The State shall recognize their traditional medicine
and supplementary forms of therapy, subject to principles of bioethics.
Article 123: Indigenous peoples
have the right to maintain and promote their own economic practices based
on reciprocity, solidarity and exchange; their traditional productive activities
and their participation in the national economy, and to define their priorities.
Indigenous peoples have the right to professional training services and
to participate in the preparation, implementation and management of specific
training programs and technical and financial assistance services to strengthen
their economic activities within the framework of sustainable local development.
The State shall guarantee to workers belonging to indigenous peoples the
enjoyment of the rights granted under labour legislation.
Article 124: Collective intellectual
property rights in the knowledge, technologies and innovations of indigenous
peoples are guaranteed and protected. Any activity relating to genetic
resources and the knowledge associated with the same, shall pursue collective
benefits. The registry of patents on this ancestral knowledge and these
resources is prohibited.
Article 125: Indigenous peoples
have the right to participate in politics. The State shall guarantee indigenous
representation in the National Assembly and the deliberating organs of
federal and local entities with an indigenous population, in accordance
with law.
Article 126: Indigenous peoples,
as cultures with ancestral roots, are part of the Nation, the State and
the Venezuelan people, which is one, sovereign and indivisible. In accordance
with this Constitution, they have the duty of safeguarding the integrity
and sovereignty of the nation.
The term people in this Constitution
shall in no way be interpreted with the implication it is imputed in international
law (Gaceta Oficial de la República de Venezuela N° 36860. 30
de diciembre de 1999).
Conclusions
We consider that the fact
of foremost importance in the new Constitution of 1999 is that of recognizing
the existence of the indigenous peoples with all their rights to their
ecologies, their culture, cosmology, their land, their traditional knowledge,
medicine, and their languages.
Moreover, their previous
rights as established in the first Constitution of 1811 have been reinstated,
rights which has been trodden under foot and annulled, not just by the
Spanish colonial authorities but also by the country’s own creole society,
right through to the laws passed in the 20th century.
Thus a new process has begun,
one which will be the concern of all Venezuelans, including indigenous
ones, to develop and widen means of compensating for the suffering and
for the lack of recognition on the part of creole society of those who,
in the end, are ethnic groups descended from the first settlers of this
land which we call Venezuela. This process has started, with the designation
of mixed commissions for the demarcation of ancestral lands pertaining
to the indigenous peoples, and no doubt facing the opposition of those
who, using their contacts with corrupt government functionaries, will seek
to protect their hold on lands which they illegitimately acquired from
peasant and indigenous peoples alike. These new struggles by the indigenous
peoples are waged in a new framework of social relations in Venezuela.
We hope that this process will not be reversed or otherwise changed by
the large land owning interests who have down everything possible to obstruct
the process thus far.
Puerto Ordaz, 08 April 2002
Addenda
In the conclusions of the
above paper, I signalled that in spite of the undeniable advances gained
by the indigenous people of Venezuela in the new Constitution of 1999,
it would now be question of actually applying and developing its provisions
in practice. At the same time, I said that the land owning barons and other
dominant forces would lie in wait for any opportunity to frustrate the
application of the provisions of this Constitution. This actually happened
on 11 April 2002, with a military coup d’etat who apparent spark was an
indefinite general strike called by FEDECAMARAS (a federation of chambers
of commerce) and the umbrella workers union, the CTV. The result was a
government presided over by the President of FEDECAMARAS (the businessmen’s
organization of Venezuela) accompanied by other leaders in private business
such as the President of the Banking, Commercial and Industrial Association,
as well as leader of the old Christian Democrat Party (COPEI), the Cardinal
of Venezuela, an elected Governor belonging to the Democratic Action Party,
and a representative of the CTV workers’ union. In its one and only decree,
this putschist government dismissed and abrogated the Constitution of 1999.
On the 13th of April, thanks
to the presence of the people in the street and of a movement to recapture
our dignity as a nation, led by a group of soldiers loyal to constitutional
government, the President of the Republic, Hugo Chávez, was placed
back in charge.
I maintain the firm hope
that this time the Constitution will be maintained, and of course the rights
of the indigenous peoples of Venezuela, even though those who do not accept
this may try again, with the help of the most reactionary national and
international forces, to throw to the dirt the hopes of the indigenous
peoples and, indeed, of all our people.
In the meantime, the President
has produced two new Resolutions. Resolution No. 1795 recognizes the indigenous
languages as the official idioms of the several ethnic groups living in
Venezuela, and it also establishes the obligation to teach those languages
(and aspects of their cultures) in all public and private schools and Universities,
in those provinces where there are still living indigenous ethnic groups.
Another Resolution, No. 1796, creates the National Council for Education,
Cultures and Indigenous Languages, to provide plans, investigations and
studies, in order to promote and protect the historical, cultural and linguistic
heritage of the indigenous peoples. Our Fundación de Estudios Indígenas—FUNDESIN—is
promoting meetings with ethnic groups such as the Kari'ña, Pemón
and Warao (our neighbours), in order to organize and help them, and in
order to discuss those Resolutions and to make preparations to teach their
languages to the educators that will have such responsibilities in the
next future.
Domingo Sánchez P
16 April 2002
Map
of the location of indigenous ethnic groups according to distribution by
linguistic stocks and approximate areas of occupation, according to the
Indigenous Census of 1982, OCEI. Ethnographic compilation by Roberto Lizarralde.
Adaptation by Lena Sánchez Bor 2000.
References
Armellada, Fray Cesáreo
de
1977
Fuero Indígena Venezolano – Universidad Católica Andrés
Bello – Caracas
Asamblea Nacional Constituyente
1999
Constitución de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela. Gaceta
Oficial de la
República de Venezuela
- Editorial La Piedra (Cavalieri) – Caracas
2000
Exposición de Motivos de la Constitución de la República
Bolivariana de Venezuela
Gaceta Oficial de la República
Bolivariana de Venezuela N° 5453 Extraordinario –
Caracas
Gil Fortoul, José
1954
Historia Constitucional de Venezuela - Ministerio de Educación –
3 Vol. - Caracas
Morales, Filadelfo
1989
Del Morichal a la Sabana – Universidad Central de Venezuela – Ediciones
Faces – Caracas
1990
Los Hombres del Onoto y la Macana – Fondo Editorial Tropykos –Caracas
Recopilación de
Leyes y Decretos de Venezuela
1931
Constitución Federal de los Estados Unidos de Venezuela -1811
Tomo 1 - Caracas
SEE ALSO THE
VENEZUELA PAGE ON THE CARIBBEAN AMERINDIAN CENTRELINK
