The Persistence of the Venezuelan Indigenous World

This essay aims to show the situation of Venezuelan Indigenous peoples in these difficult times, due to the national economic situation, government abandonment, and finally, the legal and illegal gold and coltan mining industries. The five surveys of Indigenous professionals, from different ethnicities and places, reveal the deplorable situation of subsistence and disease that plagues Indigenous peoples in their habitat, yet they are rooted in their origins. Their vivid awareness of being Indigenous and their desire to survive as peoples rich in history, cultures, and traditions, and to continue speaking their native languages and, as far as possible, in their native territory as an indelible emblem of their stories and ancestry, are crucial. Indigenous peoples have paradigmatic consistency that unites them in their ethnohistory and in the process of forming their myths and languages, which distinguish them and, at the same time, articulate them through their struggles, confrontations, labor, and exchanges of goods and values. The situation, generally one of covert submission, must be overcome through recognition, which must be achieved through a high-level confrontation and respect for a nationality that must consolidate its identity and forge paths of coexistence and fraternity. Currently, the Venezuelan indigenous community is under strict government control, which obstructs any publication critical of the regime and information about the sad situations of Venezuelan ethnic groups in order to cover food, healthcare, education, and keep their territories free from mining invasions and the trafficking of women and men for slave labor as a necessity for survival. Imprisonment without trial is constant, and fear prevents publicity about the current lamentable situations of the Venezuelan indigenous community.