In the heart of the Orinoco River delta, which comprises some 3,000 river branches and that make up the Delta Amacuro State, lives a mostly indigenous population that is no stranger to the complex humanitarian emergency suffered in the rest of Venezuela.
By Correspondent lapatilla.com
Faced with the apathy and abandonment of the State, civil society organizations take over the responsibility of helping the most vulnerable sectors of the Delta region. Eulises Sanguino, member of the Congregation Missionaries of the Consolata recounts the work they do in the different Warao communities. This is the same congregation where the Nigerian priest Josiah K’Okal, who was found dead on the Tucupita-Barrancas national highway, collaborated.
The central work of the missionaries focuses on the religious part, that is, Catholic education, but they also engage in social support. Sanguino mentions that they also provide support in the medical area with hospital, surgical, and emergency aid.
They also organize courses and workshops in baking, sewing, computing, languages, barbering, among others, to train them for a workplace. Their goal is to ensure that the youngest students do not abandon their studies, from the beginning of preschool to high school.
“As missionaries we serve different indigenous communities of Delta Amacuro. We help with the delivery of arepas twice a week in the community where the landfill is located (Guasina) meals are made for about 300 people, including adults and children. In December, clothes obtained through donations were distributed among them. We have the support of Cáritas de Venezuela with free medical sessions with professionals who do it voluntarily,” Sanguino said.
Devastated populations
The collaborator of the Congregation of Missionaries stated that of the communities they serve, the most underserved is that of Guasina and even for this organization it is difficult to serve them all, because the population is very large. Those who live in that area not only live off the garbage, but also by doing favors such as trash collection and disposal or clearing of weeds.
Although it may seem contradictory, some of the more remote communities in the many river branches, where access is only by boat and the journey takes up to six hours, the living conditions are less precarious because they can fish, hunt and plant crops. These sectors also have medical care provided not only by missionaries, but also by other organizations.
“The missionaries also help free of charge with the medicines that the State should provide. We lend the boats to transport medications to the clinics in these communities as a way to help. What the missionaries try to attack the most is malnutrition, which can be observed at first glance but also includes: parasites in children mainly, skin diseases and tuberculosis. Death is present at every moment, they can die from something serious or some simple issue, all due to inattention on the part of the authorities,” he said.
High migration
The situation in this region is so desolate that some hamlets have completely disappeared after the migration of the indigenous people to Brazil, Guyana and other states of Venezuela.
A source, who asked to keep his identity confidential, revealed that another of the diseases that has ravaged the Warao population is AIDS. In fact, entire communities have become extinct, which shows the seriousness of the health condition of the natives.
“Tuberculosis is nothing more than hunger, and is what that kills the indigenous people the most, poor nutrition. Those who live in more remote areas make the journey to carry out procedures such as an ID or birth certificate: four hours to come and another four to return. Many have died on the same boat due to lack of food or because they came in sick. In some cases, it has been seen that people have had to cover with salt the body to stop decomposition,” says the source.
Guerrilla territory
Another no less serious issue that the indigenous communities in the lower delta are experiencing is that they are being controlled by “Los pata e’ goma” (rubber feet), as they call the ELN guerrillas. According to testimonies from some inhabitants of the region, this irregular group uses the Atlantic Ocean as a route to traffic drugs, gold, wood and coltan. They denounce that the guerrilla has several soldier camps in Piacoa, Santa Catalina, La Tortuga and other areas, without State agencies daring to enter those places.
The misnamed “Los pata e’ rubber”, nicknamed this way by the communities where this guerrilla has control, operates in the municipalities of Antonio Díaz and Casacoima, and part of the river municipality of Tucupita, but also in the municipalities of Sotillo and Uracoa in southern Monagas state. The ELN also has a settlement in a town called Piacoa, since they discovered a mine that they changed the name and called it “Valle Dupal”, but which is known as the “mine of terror”.
They exploit gold in this deposit, located very close to Bolívar State in the Guayanés Massif, but which is within the jurisdiction of Delta Amacuro. The guerrillas maintain control of the delta municipalities and those in southern Monagas, with the exception of the Libertador Municipality.
The guerrilla group operates by extorting livestock farmers for “vaccine” (protection money extortion in kind), they thus demand heads of cattle and cheese to maintain control. It should be remembered that the guerrilla thrives through drug trafficking, which is its main activity.
The sale of weapons and explosives to Guyana is another business that “Los pata e’ rubber” take advantage of. Other irregular groups, which coexist with the guerrilla, are dedicated to crimes such as human trafficking, child pornography, trafficking of exotic animals, kidnapping of children who are sent to other parts of the world, and sale of organs, among others.
“They subjugate the indigenous communities of course, and the non-indigenous community as well. Guerrilla settlements are the places where they believe they should have control, they obviously have money to reach different communities. In the Antonio Díaz municipality, for example, they cover Santa Catalina, Guayo, and they are the ones who rule in this areas in Delta Amacuro state. There is no authority from the mayor, councilors, anything like that, nor from the Government itself. They are the ones who control this area, they check if there is food, if there is medicine, they act practically like Robin Hood. They take from those who have to give to other people, which is what they do with small producers by forcing them to pay for “vaccines”, not only in the Delta Amacuro State, but also in southern Monagas State, and if they do not pay up, they obviously threaten to steal everything from them or destroy the farm, and they have done it,” said a source who asked to remain anonymous to protect his physical integrity.
Although it is known that these gangs traffic, it is unknown how much can be trafficked in this area. Small gangs can illicitly market gasoline, diesel and any other merchandise, as long as they do not interfere with drug trafficking. The ELN guerrillas even carry out a “kind of inspection” on different boats to verify that what they are trafficking is not drugs, and they let them continue sailing.
The National Government is so absent in this part of Venezuela that weeks ago an oil spill occurred on the coasts of Trinidad and Tobago and reached part of the delta where there are mangrove reserves and were affected by this pollution. Despite the responsibility of the Caribbean government in this event, the Venezuelan State has not made any claim against that nation to preventing these accidents against the ecosystem from happening again.
This region meanwhile, very far from the most populated centers of the country, continues under the power of the ELN and other irregular armed groups, which subjugate the mostly indigenous population to follow their rules, while the State has left them to their own devices, a fate without any type of protection, despite the fact of what is established in articles 119 to 126 of the National Constitution which, among other aspects, indicates that the State has the duty to safeguard the integrity and national sovereignty of the ancestral peoples.