A New Zealand governmental delegation attending the 126th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly in Kampala, Uganda, met with members of Parliament from Venezuela to share experiences and discuss tangible ways to increase the political participation of indigenous peoples.
The president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, signed on Monday the decrees to enact the Debt Law 2012, the reform to the Medicine Practice Law, the Organic Law against Racial Discrimination, and the Law on the Rational and Efficient Use of Energy.
This past Wednesday, the Venezuelan government returned over 15,800 hectares of ancestral lands to the indigenous Yukpa people, as the country celebrated “Indigenous Resistance Day” with public events and marches across the country.
In the early morning hours this Sunday, the Institute for the Defence of People and their Access to Goods and Services, (INDEPABIS) began the day by putting the brakes on discriminatory dealings related to race and physical appearance that are being carried out by some nightclubs.
This past Sunday in the Hotel Alba, Caracas, more than 600 delegates gathered from around the globe to initiate the 4th International Meeting of Afro-Descendents and Revolutionary Transformations in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Forum’s main agenda is the fight against racial discrimination and the role of social movements within that struggle.
This week, Venezuela’s National Assembly (AN) unanimously approved the Law Against Racial Discrimination, legislation that will establish mechanisms to prevent, respond to, punish and eradicate racial discrimination by any person, group of persons, public authorities, private institutions and private institutions, and civil, economic, political, cultural, and social organizations.
On Tuesday a Venezuelan court in the state of Trujillo ordered the conditional release of indigenous Yukpa leaders Olegario and Sabino Romero, as well as Wayú leader Alexander Fernández.
Last week, Venezuela celebrated the 5-year anniversary of the United Nations Educational, ScientifIc and Cultural Organization’s declaration that the plague of illiteracy has been successfully eradicated in the South American nation.
Commemorations in Venezuela continued today in the context of October 12th, Indigenous Resistance Day. On Monday and Tuesday of this week, over 400 representatives of indigenous peoples gathered for the 4th Abya-Yala Great Nation Congress of Anti-Imperialist Indigenous Peoples. On Wednesday, demonstrations were held in solidarity with the Yukpa people and imprisoned Yukpa Chief Sabino Romero.
Over 80 Yukpa indigenous Venezuelans are protesting in front of Venezuela's Supreme Court in order to demand a ruling on whether three arrested Yukpas can be judged under indigenous law rather than the national legal system, in the wake of a conflict over land demarcation.
The 5th Zulia State judge Erika Carroz suspended the trial against Yukpa Chief Sabino Romero and two other indigenous leaders who are facing charges of murder after the jury failed to appear for a second time yesterday.
Defence lawyer Ricardo Colmenares filed a constitutional appeal before the Venezuelan Supreme Court on behalf of three indigenous leaders who were arrested in Zulia state, arguing that the indigenous people have a right to be tried by the legitimate authorities of their own people.
The Venezuelan National Assembly passed a new law on Thursday to preserve, promote, and strengthen indigenous artisanship through legal recognition, the creation of indigenous artisan councils, and a special development fund.
