By James Suggett - Venezuelanalysis.com, Oct 12th 2011
In celebration of the Day of Indigenous Resistance on October 12th, the Venezuelan government announced numerous initiatives aimed at assisting and empowering indigenous communities. While such initiatives as well as rights guaranteed in the constitution have successfully come to fruition in many indigenous communities, they have faced obstacles in others.
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.
On Tuesday, the day after the national government granted more than 40,000 hectares of land to Yukpa indigenous communities in northwestern Venezuela, assassins attacked the community of Yukpa chief and indigenous rights activist Sabino Romero, killing two and injuring at least four.
Celebrating 517 years of indigenous
resistance to invasion and colonisation Venezuela marked Indigenous Resistance
Day on Monday with the granting of
title deeds to indigenous communities.
Venezuela's Interior and Justice Minister Tarek El-Aissami confirmed
Sunday that Venezuela plans to increase its military presence in five
locations along the northern region of the Colombian border called the
Sierra de Perijá.
Responding to President Chávez’s instructions last Sunday, Venezuelan
government officials promised this week to accelerate the granting of
land titles to Yukpa indigenous communities who have occupied private
estates to demand their constitutional right to ancestral lands.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez pledged decisive support Sunday for
the Yukpa indigenous people who have occupied 14 large estates in the
northwestern state of Zulia to demand legal title to their ancestral
lands.
A Venezuelan indigenous community belonging to the Yukpa ethnic group, which is
demanding legal title to its ancestral lands, was attacked last week by
hundreds of armed aggressors. According to the Yukpa, the aggressors
were hired by elite landowners to evict the indigenous population from land each claim as theirs.
![A protest sign in support of the Yukpa reads: "Chávez/[Environment Minister] Yubirí: The Yukpa demand the Tizina, Paja, Chiquita, and Ceilan Estates." (ANMCLA)](http://venezuelanalysis.com/files/imagecache/medium/images/2008/08/Yukpas_venceran.jpg)
