admin /1 April, 2007
After more than a year of intense pressure, on March 21 President Chavez issued a Presidential Decree that no new coal mines will be built in the Sierra de Perija, and no expansion will be permitted in existing coal mines. “By saying today ‘Not one more mine in Zulia state,’ president Hugo Chavez brings back hope for the future of the indigenous peoples of the Sierra de Perija and for life itself,” said the Wayuu and Yukpa communities in a press release.
The Sierra de Perija along Venezuela’s northwestern border is home to Wayuu, Yukpa and Bari indigenous peoples who have vigorously protested explorations in their territories by multinational coal companies. The indigenous communities rejected collective land titles offered by the Chavez administration because the titles excluded the sites of new mines slated for development this year.
In January 2006, I was among thousands of participants in the World Social Forum who marched with people from the Sierra de Perija through the streets of the capital, under banners that read “NO AL CARBON” (No to Coal). I visited their remote communities and, with the help of the environmental NGO Homo et Natura, developed a Global Response campaign to internationalize their struggle (see http://www.globalresponse.org/gra.php?i=1/06)
Muchisimas gracias to everyone who wrote a letter to president Chavez for this campaign. Pro-Chavez people told us we shouldn’t campaign against his policies. Anti-Chavez people told us he would never respond to international pressure. We campaigned for the rights of the indigenous peoples and for protection of a magnificent, biologically rich forest ecosystem, as we do all around the world. The indigenous communities kept up constant protests against the mines until yesterday – when they won! It is very sweet to celebrate this victory with them!
Paula Palmer, Executive Director
Global Response
