From proclamation to denial
Indigenous rights and political participation in Venezuela
in Regions and Cohesion
Abstract
The indigenous people of Venezuela, long excluded from political participation, registered a whole set of rights within the new constitution in 1999. However, the proclamation of these rights did not ensure their full implementation and, a fortiori, their purpose to protect the survival of indigenous peoples. This article presents an analysis of the processes through which indigenous rights have been allocated but poorly implemented and even substantially withdrawn. In many Latin American states, the rights that promote autonomy and self-government are actively abandoned notwithstanding cultural, political, and economic contexts be they progressive or conservative. Through this analysis, this article proposes the concept of “proclamation-denial”. While this concept is relevant for numerous Latin American countries, this article highlights the specificities of the Venezuelan case.
Contributor Notes
CATHERINE ALÈS is a research director attached to the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and to the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) in Paris. She has been working among the Yanomami in Venezuelan Amazon since 1975 and has published on many topics, in particular on warfare and revenge, group theory, politics and rhetoric, multi-paternity and theory of substances, sex distinction and gender, kinship and ritual, shamanism and health care systems, indigenous rights, and the indigenous movement. E-mail: ales@ehess.fr
Regions and Cohesion
Regiones y Cohesión / Régions et Cohésion
