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NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
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WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON NICARAGUA AND THE AMERICAS
ISSUE #189, SEPTEMBER 12, 1993
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BRAZIL/VENEZUELA: YANOMAMI MASSACRE STILL UNDER INVESTIGATION
A Brazilian garimpeiro, or gold prospector, has confessed to
participating in a massacre of about 16 Yanomami Indians in early
August, Roraima state's federal police director Sydney Lemos told
Agence France Presse on Sept. 9. Pedro Alcantara Garcia, who was
arrested on Sept. 7 in Boa Vista, said that the conflict began
when Joao Neto, owner of a nearby miners' camp, failed to fulfil a
promise to give a hammock to local Yanomami chief Geraldo Tuxua.
He said Tuxua then shot at a garimpeiro but missed him, and that
on Neto's orders, a group of six garimpeiros went into the jungle
and killed four Yanomami. Garcia said that a group of Yanomami
returned to the miners' camp several days later and killed one
miner and wounded another; 24 hours later, 14 garimpeiros went to
a Yanomami village but found it deserted. They found the Yanomami
in the forest and killed 14 of them as the rest fled. A total of
19 garimpeiros are thought to be linked to the massacre; four of
the principal suspects were ordered arrested on Sept. 6, but so
far only Garcia, who was staying in a Boa Vista hotel under a
false name, has been captured. [ED-LP 9/9/93 & 9/10/93 from AFP]
Garcia's story differs somewhat, though not completely, from a
detailed account released on Sept. 2 by the Indianist Missionary
Council (CIMI), headquartered in Brasilia. According to CIMI, the
Yanomami were killed in Venezuela, in an old field near the
Hwaximeu river, and the two Yanomami villages that were destroyed
were located on a riverbank of the Hwaximeu, also in Venezuela.
CIMI says the conflict began in late June or early July, when a
group of six Hwaximeutheri (as the Yanomami who live in these two
villages are called) went to a miners' camp to retrieve a rifle
that had been taken from them. The miners told them to leave, then
followed them into the forest and attacked them, killing five
Hwaximeutheri and wounding one. A few days later, Yanomami
warriors from four villages made a raid to avenge the dead; one
garimpeiro was killed. Between Aug. 22 and 23, as the
Hwaximeutheri were on their way to the old field to wait for an
invitation to a party in the Makayutheri village, three warriors
headed to the miners' camp to avenge the deaths of the five
Yanomami. A miner was killed. The Hwaximeutheri were attacked in
the old field the next day, when most of them had already left for
the Makayutheri village; 13 people who remained in the camp were
killed with gunshot and/or machetes and three were wounded. When
the Hwaximeutheri warriors returned to the camp, they cremated all
the bodies except one, that of a woman from another village who
had no relatives among the Hwaximeutheri. According to survivers,
the miners later came back, destroyed her body and dumped it in a
river and burned the villages. [CIMI 9/2/93, posted on NY
Transfer]
Venezuelan officials confirmed on Sept. 6 that the massacres did
in fact occur in Venezuela, less than 10 miles from the Brazilian
border. [IPS 9/6/93] Some in Venezuela charge that the massacre
was due to Brazilian expansionism in the Amazon, and that miners
crossing the border illegally are part of that plan. According to
Charles Brewer, hired by the Venezuelan government to investigate
the Yanomami massacre, "The confusing information surrounding this
case is due to the fact that Brazil is anxious to protect its
image for the international economic community, so that it is not
seen as imperialist." [IPS 9/2/93] Representatives of Brazil and
Venezuela's armed forces plan to meet during the week of Sept. 13
to analyze the massacre, Venezuelan defense minister Gen. Manuel
Andara Clavier said on Sept. 7. [ED-LP 9/9/93 from AFP] Venezuelan
deputy Carlos Azpurua, head of the house committee on culture, has
demanded that Venezuela's Congress investigate the massacre and
take measures to protect the Yanomami. [ED-LP 9/8/93 from AFP]
Meanwhile, Brazil has begun an operation called "The Amazon
Lives," designed to expel the nearly 1,000 garimpeiros from the
protected Yanomami reserve in Roraima state near where the
massacres occurred. The federal police said they are destroying
miners' airstrips, and that without food or work conditions, the
garimpeiros are surrendering. [LJ 9/5/93 from AFP, EFE, Xinhua,
ANSA]
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