We are convinced that in Venezuela indigenous peoples' rights have been curtailed in many ways. The inalienable right to our lands and territories, as well as the right to administer the natural resources within them have been affected, whilst indigenous organisations and authorities have been ignored. As a result, the indigenous systems of social organisation, customs, traditions and the fundamental right to life have been weakened.

Currently, all these problems are at their worst due to new government policies which involve handing out vast extensions of Venezuelan territory, including our territories. Because of the government's opening up of the so-called "oil" and "mining" frontiers, the application of structural modifications and the privatisation of the state industries, our situation today is one where the indigenous territories are at the mercy of the voracious appetites of both transnational corporations and Venezuelan companies which have been favoured by these measures. The government's policies allow these companies to come into our territories and exploit the land’s mineral and natural resources without any type of control. In this way they have caused not only irreversible damage to the soil, forest and water but they are also responsible for forcing our people to abandon their territories, destroying our bodies and cultural soul.

As a result of the situation that we are living today in Venezuela, the activities of indigenous communities and organisations have concentrated on the following areas:

• to seek from the Venezuelan state and appropriate institutions recognition and that the ancestral territories occupied by the Warao be awarded to them
• to demand the intervention of the Public Prosecutor to verify the serious damage, environmental, social and cultural, caused by the activities of the oil companies associated with Lagoven S.A., British Petroleum, Benton Vincler, Gico Pry Land, Louisiana Lands, Amoco y Ex-Geo in the ancestral territories occupied by the Warao, and demand compensation for the damage caused by the oil companies
• to support the various actions which the Warao carry out in defence of their territory and their cultural survival
• to request a halt to seismic exploration until agreement is reached with the Warao in Delta Amacuro
• to request an overall plan of environmental improvement in the areas affected by the oil activities carried out by Corpoven S.A. and associated companies in Kariña communities in Anzoategui and Monagas states
• to demand appropriate compensation for communities affected in their soil, water and agriculture by the exploration, production and transport of oil
• to support actions taken by CIUNDETRA (Indigenous Communities of Anzoategui State United by the Right to Work) in defence of the right to work and to obtain financial recompense according to the Employment Law, International Treaties, National Constitution, the current Oil Contract and the one which will be issued soon, and Agreement 107 of the International Workers' Organisation
• to demand the review of contracts of service already signed, as well as to request the signing of further agreements involving the affected communities.

One specific project of the government has been the development of mining in protected areas, without taking into account the impact that such action could have on the indigenous peoples. Therefore we have concentrated our action as we here explain:

• we add our voice to the request for the annulment of Decree 1850 (Sierra Imataca) introduced to the Supreme Court of Justice by indigenous and environmental groups, because we consider that the rights of the Pemon, Akawaio, Arawak, Kaiña y Warao indigenous peoples have been violated and their physical and cultural survival placed in danger
• we urge CONIVE (Venezuelan National Indigenous Council) and regional indigenous organisations to carry out necessary action in defence of the rights of indigenous people affected by Decree 1850, which delivers Imataca to transnational mining companies
• we join in the defence of Imataca and its biodiversity, as one of the most important "lungs" of the planet
• to go before national and international bodies to request the annulment of Decree 1850 and the speeding up of the award of Collective Land Ownership Titles for areas occupied for generations
• to support Yukpa and Barí communities in their struggle against mining and oil production in Sierra Perijá
• to create a network of opinion and information related to coal production in Guasare and Mina Norte, in the Mara and Páez regions of Zulia State, concerning the environmental and health hazards to neighbouring communities and which threaten the physical and cultural well-being of the Wayuu people.

We are conscious of the negative consequences that the new project of the power line will bring for the Pemon people. Despite the fact that this project is opposed by the indigenous peoples of the Gran Sabana, the government has ignored their petitions and continues firmly with its policy of providing electricity from the Guri Reservoir to Brazil, passing through the Gran Sabana. For this reason, until there is complete information about the environmental, social, cultural and spiritual impact of this macro-project on indigenous communities, all the indigenous peoples in Venezuela support the action of the Pemon and their organisations not only in defence of their territorial rights but also as natural guardians of the region.

Declaration of the Indigenous Peoples of the Gran Sabana (Bolivar State)

"Faced with the serious crisis which confronts the country, which affects all Venezuelan citizens and particularly the indigenous population of the Gran Sabana, the undersigned, heads and delegates of the communities of Waramasen, San Antonio de Morichal, Maurak, Agua Fria, Monte Bello, Paraitepuy de Roraima, San Francisco de Yurare, San Rafael de Kamoiran, Vista Alegre, Mareparuta, San Juan de Kamoiran, Tuauken, Kanayeuta, Kamarata and indigenous representatives of the groups which live in the towns of Bolivar State, having met in the Central University of Venezuela in this city of Caracas wish to declare to Venezuela and the world:

• we have travelled from remote parts of our communities to this city in order to denounce the brutal stripping and usurping of our ancestral lands by the Venezuelan state and others, provoking a situation of judicial instability and insecurity which makes it impossible for our groups to take part in the productive process of the nation and the progress and development of the Gran Sabana and the country
• we denounce the policy of opening up to mining and oil, formulated and put into practice by the national government without consulting our indigenous communities, as aggression by the state and a violation of our ancestral rights to the enjoyment and administration of our national resources for the good of our communities. Likewise, we denounce the power line to Brazil, because it represents a serious risk to the life of our community and damage to our environment
• we state that we are not opposed to any project of progress and development which is formulated for this important geographical part of our national territory, but we consider that such processes should be carried out respecting our natural habitat, our culture, our customs and our differences as indigenous communities which also form part of the Venezuelan nation
• we reject with all our force any policy indicated by the International Monetary Fund, the Interamerican Development Bank, the World Bank and other state bodies because they have been applied without taking into account our legitimate rights and ignoring our differences as indigenous peoples, and fundamentally because they constitute a flagrant violation of our sovereignty and national independence
• we reject the negative consequences which flow from the opening up to mining and oil, because it represents hunger, misery, damage to our habitat and the death of our communities
• in the name of our heroes and indigenous ancestors Guaicaipuro, Terepaima, Mara, Yaracuy, Cayuarima, Yokoima, Manikuyá, Tuchawa André and so many others of our glorious past we ask our countrymen to join us in the struggle which we have begun for the recognition of the Original Title to our ancestral lands, for the defeat of the plans of the transnationals and the government in the opening up for oil and mining of these unknown lands, and for the defence of Imataca as patrimony of all the inhabitants of the country.

Thus we declare in Caracas, capital of the Republic of Venezuela, on the 28^th June 1997.

INNA PEMONTON

Juvencio Gómez Suárez

Damián Montella Centeno

Silviano Castro

Rogelio Peña

Alejandro Martín González

Higimio Pérez Ayala"