Kuala Lumpur (30/11/12) .- Whenever the word ‘massacre’ is mentioned, one can’t help but to imagine lifeless bodies liying hauntingly like discarded dolls with some with their arms outstretched, liying shoulder to shoulder.
Thus, to read about a massacre of up to 80 Yanomami people has taken place in the Venezuelan state of Amazonas is more horrifying. Two months before the Venezuelan Presidential elections, there was a report saying an armed group flew over in a helicopter, opening fire with guns and launching explosives into Irotatheri settlement in the High Ocamo area. According to the report, the village was home to about 80 people and only three survived the attack.
Images of the horrifying attack with crude explosives, executions and a helicopter strafing the village with machine-gun fire dominates one’s imagination of how the attack took place. Feelings of anguish and despair soon take over when we learn that the village was burned and like the wildfire quickly spreads, consuming the thick, dried-out vegetation and almost everything else in its path.
It was horrific just to imagine. But it was not as horrific as the act of Media Terrorism aimed at Venezuela.
The news about the massacre of the Yanomami spread throughout the international media like wildfire, sparked by the statement by Survival International (SI).
Despite causing a big stir in international news, SI then conveniently retracted their claim of the attack after Venezuelan authorities sent a team who were accompanied by the media had found no bodies or any evidence of an attack, let alone a massacre.
However, what SI and most of the international media refuse to highlight is the efforts taken by the Venezuelan government to ensure the welfare of its indigenous people.
In 2011, the Venezuelan government returned over 15,800 hectares of ancestral lands to the indigenous Yukpa people, as an act of social justice attached to their constitution which repaid what is owed to those who for years maintained control over these lands as the country celebrated “Indigenous Resistance Day”.
Then, in the same celebration, the Venezuelan government announced numerous initiatives aimed at assisting and empowering indigenous communities. Nicia Maldonado, the minister for indigenous peoples, said that the government plans to create several socialist communes to be inhabited by indigenous communities.
Meanwhile, Ricardo Menéndez, the minister for science and technology and vice president for the productive economy, said that indigenous communities are being incorporated into the Grand Venezuelan Housing Mission through which the government has promised to build two million homes over the next seven years.
In addition, the National Constitution of 1999 and the Organic Law on Indigenous Peoples and Communities (LOPCI) obligate the government to serve and protect a series of special rights for people of indigenous ancestry. These include the right to demarcate and inhabit their ancestral territory, to be legally identified as indigenous, to receive bilingual or multi-lingual education, to choose their authentic authorities and have those authorities recognized, to elect three indigenous representatives in the National Assembly, to carry out traditional economic and religious customs of their choice, to practice traditional medicine with patients’ consent, and to have their genetic material protected from exploitation.
On top of that, Venezuela’s National Assembly also has a “Permanent Commission of Indigenous Peoples” which has nine Assembly members; with five represented by the Government and four from the opposition.
Nevertheless, these efforts represent only a small part of the government’s broad set of policies toward indigenous communities.
Thus, why was there a report in the first place?
With this appalling and irresponsible reporting, it comes to questions the reason on why such accusations were made by SI against the Venezuelan government. Additionally, questions also arise on how unfounded horror stories were found published without any investigation or corroboration as to the facts of the story or whether it even occurred in the first place in respectable international media.
In all this commotion of false reporting, one cannot ignore the fact that this dubious report was conveniently published two months before the Venezuelan Presidential elections.
The lie about the massacre of the Venezuelan Yanomami was created and published is a direct attack on the Venezuelan Government. These lies fabricated and given by Survival International and international news agencies, serve as an example of Media Terrorism, meant to turn the public opinion against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and undermine the Bolivarian Revolution in Latin America. It was a ghastly bid to disrupt the Venezuelan government’s attention in the midst of the elections.
These lies not only have abused the indigenous Yanomami but it is insulting to the government of Venezuela. What is more insulting is the irresponsible reporting by these ‘Media Terrorists’ who are feeding lies to the readers who deserved to know the truth.
While showing no concern for their readers, they have also not issued a single apology for the lies they published.
Meanwhile, when the Venezuelan government flew local and international journalists to the Irotatheri village, just 12 miles from the Brazilian border, as soon as the procession leaves the helicopter, smiling and curious indigenous give small chest clapping to welcome visitors. “No matanza, todo fino” (“No killing, all fine”) a Yanomami said in Spanish to the delegation’s translator.
In this isolated place no apparent trace of violence or deaths. In contrast, its inhabitants, who have a lump of snuff in his mouth, prepare a welcome dance showing their spears and bows and face painted with black lines.
“‘Wishak, wishak, wishak,’ or ‘monkey, monkey, monkey,’ the indigenous repeated as two bearded photographers approached”. One of the photographers wrote “It was our facial hair that took them by surprise. They touched our faces. They touched their own. Then they lifted their hands to their own. Then they lifted their hands to their chest and said, ‘noji,’ or ‘friend.’”
Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in Malaysia
Yanomami girl
Yanomami welcomes foreign journalists
Yanomami welcomes foreign journalists
Yanomami being checked by government doctors
Yanomami being checked by government doctors
Yanomami dancing
Yanomamis in Venezuela