Robyn Marshall, Caracas
The peasants of the Venezuelan countryside are being terrorised. Three peasant leaders were assassinated on April 23, in the state of Portuguesa.
All of the leaders — Jose Rodriguez, Gabriel Paredes and Juan Baptista — were shot four times in the head. They had been legally working the land after receiving letters from the National Institute of Land.
"We presume the deaths have been caused by the so-called absentee landowners", said Miguel Ulises Moreneo, president of the Peasant Federation of Venezuela. "This makes 120 peasants who have been assassinated between 2003 and this year." To date, none of the murders have been solved. While cases have gone to court, right-wing judges have let the accused go free.
Venezuela's peasants and indigenous communities are also facing terror from paramilitaries. Four paramilitary groups based in the Colombian province of Northern Santander have carried out massacres, torture and kidnappings on the Venezuelan side of the bordering Rio de Oro river. This mountainous bordering area contains the reserve that is the home of the Bari people.
The Colombian paramilitary known as the Self-Defense Unit of Colombia has assassinated nine peasants — some Colombian, some Venezuelan — and burnt three schools close to the indigenous community — the only schools for about 500 children in the region. They also destroyed a food cooperative, a store of medicines and a video room. The paramilitaries killed birds, cattle and domestic animals and took away people's means of livelihood, including all the boats and the outboard motors.
In March 2003, the attacks forced more than 1500 people, including 300 children, to flee to the mountains. It is impossible to tell how many were killed, because the bodies were so decomposed by the time they were found. Many of the indigenous groups were found walking in the mountains without food, clothes or medicine, with people suffering from diarrhea and other illnesses.
It is estimated that more than 500 paramilitaries are operating at nine different points of the frontier in this area, around the Bari settlements at La Vaquera, La Escuelita and La Cooperativa. In another incident on March 19, 2003, These groups crossed the river frontier to attack the village of La Escuelita.
Two peasants were captured by the paramilitaries, but managed to escape by jumping down a ravine of 40 metres. They have said that "paras" have the latest weapons, new military uniforms, long distance radio, satellite telephones and GPS equipment.
On this occasion, Venezuelan helicopters that disembarked troops forced the paramilitaries to suspend their operations. Some of them were wounded by gunshots but all their dead and wounded were carried by canoe to the Colombian river bank so as not to leave any evidence of their incursion into Venezuelan territory. The Venezuelan Army left a detachment of 60 men in La Escuelita to patrol the area.
The constant paramilitary attacks mean that the Venezuelan government has to spend enormous amounts of time, money and human resources to defend itself.
From Green Left Weekly, June 2, 2004.
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