"Venezuelan authorities investigate reported massacre of Amazon Indians" New York Times, August 31, 2012
CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelan authorities said Wednesday that they
would investigate claims that Brazilian gold miners massacred a village
of Yanomami Indians deep in the Amazon jungle.
It was not clear how many people may have died in the massacre. An
account presented to prosecutors Monday said most of the approximately
80 people living in a remote village called Irotatheri were killed.
The massacre occurred in early July, according to the account, which
was submitted by a Yanomami organization to prosecutors in Puerto
Ayacucho, the capital of Amazonas State, in southern Venezuela.
The document said the only survivors of Irotatheri appeared to be
three people who had been away from the village hunting when the miners
arrived. The village is located along the upper reaches of the Ocamo
River.
The account said the miners arrived in a helicopter and attacked the
villagers with guns and possibly with explosives. The three people who
had been off hunting heard the helicopter and sounds of gunfire, it
said.
The document said members of another village arrived later to find the village burned, and the charred remains of the villagers.
The national prosecutor’s office said Wednesday that it had appointed
a commission to investigate the allegations. It said the village was a
long helicopter ride or a 15-day walk from Puerto Ayacucho.
The charges evoked memories of a 1993 episode in an Amazonas village
called Haximu in which 16 Yanomami were killed by Brazilian miners. An
early account of those killings put the death toll at 73, suggesting
that caution was indicated in judging the death toll in the newly
reported massacre.
The Yanomami are one of the largest isolated indigenous groups in the
Amazon. Many of them maintain traditional ways deep in the jungle.
Illegal gold mining is a longstanding problem in the Amazon, although
it has increased in recent years with the soaring price of gold. Many
Brazilian miners enter Venezuela, clashing with indigenous groups. Hmmmm.
And here we have a gold grab by the private central banking systems of the West because Germany and others are asking for their gold back after reports it has been stolen and replaced with painted tungsten bars. That's what is behind France's intervention in Mali. I know you haven't been told that by your AmeriKan media organs, but it's the truth.
“The entrance of illegal miners is well documented, and they are not
taking sufficient measures to prevent it,’’ said Aime Tillet, a member
of an indigenous advocacy group, Wataniba.
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