The indigenous Yukpa people of Venezuela’s Sierra de Perijá have repeatedly marched on Caracas to demand the demarcation and titling of their ancestral territory. Sabino Romero, the Yukpa leader who was assassinated two days before the death of Hugo Chávez, charged that the government was attempting to divide the indigenous movement through a partial titling of traditional lands, pitting communities that accepted the offer against those holding out for a return of the entire ancestral territory. He also opposed the government’s plans open the Sierra to foreign mineral interests. Amid the homages to Chávez, the historical debt that the Venezuelan state has to the territorial claims of the Yukpa and other native peoples must not be forgotten, argues a commentary on the indigenous-oriented Servindi news service.
Photo: Servindi
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