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- Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
- Path: sparky!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!wupost!mont!pencil.cs.missouri.edu!rich
- From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
- Subject: VENEZUELA: INDIGENOUS TRIBES VICTIMS OF EPIDEMICS
- Message-ID: <1992Sep5.082323.24261@mont.cs.missouri.edu>
- Followup-To: alt.activism.d
- Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
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- Nntp-Posting-Host: pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Organization: PACH
- Date: Sat, 5 Sep 1992 08:23:23 GMT
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- Lines: 118
-
- /** reg.samerica: 154.0 **/
- ** Topic: IPS: Venezuelan Natives Victimized **
- ** Written 4:23 am Aug 30, 1992 by josefina in cdp:reg.samerica **
- From: Josefina Velasquez <josefina>
- Subject: IPS: Venezuelan Natives Victimized
-
- /* ---------- "IPS: Venezuelan Natives Victimized" ---------- */
- /* Escrito 12:10 am Aug 29, 1992 por newsdesk en cdp:ips.englibrary */
- /* ---------- "VENEZUELA: INDIGENOUS TRIBES, HISTO" ---------- */
- Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved. Permission to re-
- print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.
-
- Reference: Third World Dvpmnt
- Title: VENEZUELA: INDIGENOUS TRIBES, HISTORICAL VICTIMS OF EPIDEMICS
-
- an inter press service feature
-
- by carmen alicia fernandez
-
- caracas, aug (ips) -- a resurgence in tropical diseases has
- decimated venezuela's indigenous tribes, historical victims of
- ''western'' epidemics.
-
- for the past 500 years, venezuela's indigenous people have
- been confronting their deadliest enemy -- diseases brought to the
- continent by european colonialists and their descendants.
-
- according to romulo brito, of the extinct chaimas tribe, these
- foreign diseases have played a major role in reducing venezuela's
- indigenous population from several million to barely 200,000.
-
- ''october 12, 1492 was the day gonorrhoea arrived'' and with
- it a flood of ills previously unknown on the continent that
- continue to plague us, brito said.
-
- cholera, the most recent plague affecting venezuela's
- indigenous people, is thriving in the country's seafood and
- marine products, the primary source of food and income for the
- coastal and river indigenous communities.
-
- one year after the arrival of cholera in venezuela, 80 percent
- of the 2,000 people infected have been indigenous, and the number
- threatens to rise dramatically due to poor sanitary conditions in
- the native communities.
-
- while today cholera is claiming the lives amongst the wuayuu
- and warao tribes at an alarming rate, cancer, tuberculosis,
- ''dengue fever,'' and various venereal diseases continue to
- ravage venezuela's indigenous population.
-
- jose seripino, of the yanomami tribe, told ips, ''we have been
- afraid, but we can no longer watch our brothers die from foreign
- diseases.''
-
- in the past three years, over two thousand yanomami have died
- from a variety of fatal illnesses.
-
- however, according to beatriz hernandez, a doctor working
- along sinamaica lake, home to 80 percent of the country's
- indigenous population, the indigenous people's own customs are
- the primary obstacle.
-
- ''according to wuayuu culture, the water in the lake is never
- settled and always moving, which justifies their practice of
- throwing garbage and sewage into it,'' she said.
-
- ''it would never enter their minds that the lake and marine
- animals could represent a danger. they are children of the
- water'' and intrinsically tied to the lake, hernandez said.
- (more/ips)
- ----
-
-
- venezuela: indigenous (2)
-
- the problem is similar amongst many indigenous tribes.
-
- for example, the warao live in the swampy delta of the orinoco
- river and their culture is dependent on the jungle canals.
-
- this month, the warao celebrated a ''crab feast,'' in
- celebration of the year's bountiful harvest.
-
- ''but an evil spirit came bringing death and killing the
- priest,'' the tribe members said.
-
- luis latuff, coordinator of sanitary actions to fight cholera
- in the warao communities, said that controlling the disease in
- the region was virtually impossible.
-
- we are completely unprotected, representative of the western
- bari tribe, gabriel abea complained, saying that since the
- arrival of cholera in the region, health officials have shown a
- total lack of concern for the native population.
-
- a report by the simon bolivar centre for the study and
- investigation of tropical diseases states that some 50,000
- indigenous people in the venezuelan amazon basin are carriers of
- the oncocercosis bacteria.
-
- because of their lifestyle, the entire population is liable to
- be bitten by transmitting mosquitoes, and could face permanent
- blindness within 20 years.
-
- according to abea, ''the 'whites' of this century do not carry
- arms. now they use mercury to search for gold and poison our
- rivers. they use and dynamite and chainsaws to harvest our
- minerals and trees and kill our medicinal plants.''
-
- pointing to the venezuelan exhibit at the world exposition in
- seville, abea said, ''while we are dying, the show films of our
- customs and pride themselves on being a truely mixed and
- integrated country.'' (end/ips/sp/trd/caf/sfi/eli/92)
- ----
-
-
- ** End of text from cdp:reg.samerica **
-
-