MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Despite Chavez denial, Yanomami indigenous tribe claim there was a massacre
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Wednesday became the latest senior official to insist there is no evidence of an alleged massacre of some 80 Yanomami indigenous people. Read full article
Comments
Disclaimer & comment rulesThis is an odd story. Disposing of 80 bodies without trace is very difficult - even in a jungle. I would assume those that live there would be able to provide some evidence.
Sep 06th, 2012 - 06:33 am - Link - Report abuse 0I wouldn't trust Chavez but to openly deny the event would be brave if it were true. There's no way there won't be evidence if it did happen.
Chavez should have a word with Argentina they managed to dispose of 30,000 bodies.
Sep 06th, 2012 - 06:57 am - Link - Report abuse 0Although the nuns from helicopter would of proved a bit tricky to cover up.
I can't see they'd be able to do it without the collusion of the national government.
Sep 06th, 2012 - 07:41 am - Link - Report abuse 0Are these tribes an inconvienience that Chavez would like to get rid of?
Where is the country that supports 'tribes' and where are the Brasilian 'miners' being sheltered?
Sep 06th, 2012 - 11:33 am - Link - Report abuse 0@3 Please don't be naive. The “Venezuelan government” sent an “investigative team”? Can you imagine a Venezuelan government investigative team finding anything Chavez didn't want them to find?
Sep 06th, 2012 - 12:46 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Eu também estou de acordo esta história é estranha o mundo deve saber a verdade deste massacre aos tripos de Indigena Yanomani na minha opinião o Brasil e a Venezuela devem investigar este crime
Sep 06th, 2012 - 01:39 pm - Link - Report abuse 0#6 I agree an outside source. OAS or the UN, south america loves the UN.
Sep 06th, 2012 - 02:18 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@1
Sep 06th, 2012 - 05:45 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Disposing of 80 bodies in the jungle would be incredibly easy.
@8 That's 100% correct. Anybody who had spent any length of time in a jungle would know that you could dispose of 80 bodies with absolutely no problem at all. I'm not saying that this story is true as I wasn't there. But, yes it would be easy. The persecution of indigenous people is an ongoing thing in SA. Very sad.
Sep 06th, 2012 - 07:23 pm - Link - Report abuse 0You do not even need to know where.....the rate a body decays in the heat of a jungle is unbelievable.
Sep 06th, 2012 - 08:21 pm - Link - Report abuse 0There were allegedly survivors from the tribe so they would know the location of the event. To transport 80 bodies to a hiding place would involve huge manpower. ie witnesses. The tribespeople would know the area far better than any intruders. The death of 80 people would leave a mass of evidence. While flesh may decay quickly, bones and particularly teeth wouldn't. I don't believe a team of experienced investigators with intent and motive to find evidence would fail if the incident did actually occur. It's too large scale.
Sep 06th, 2012 - 09:04 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Yes you could look down from a plane onto a jungle that stretches as far as the eye can see in every direction and think “you'd never find anything in there” - but they have a starting point. The density of a jungle makes shipping the bodies as problematic for any killers as it does for any detectives. The jungle is neutral.
Idlehands,
Sep 06th, 2012 - 10:29 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The “intruders” are usually the same people as the tribes people only they have lived in the nearest back-water town for a generation or two. In remote Amazon towns the men often work as hunters or miners and they know the area as well as the tribes people. It would only take a dozen men a couple of hours to heave 80 bodies in to a river.
It is awe inspiring how insignificant, invisible and unwanted we are in the jungle.
If there was a massacre they could search for years and not find anything.
Well, at least we now know that they were - again - Brasilians mining illegally in Venezuela.
Sep 07th, 2012 - 01:33 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Whether they killed the locals seems open to question. If we are to take Chavez's investigation at it's face-value, these illegals did not kill the locals; they were just searching for and extracting gold and/or diamonds.
Previous similar situations would lead us to the belief that at least some locals have been killed - in this case probably by other 'locals', garimpeiros prospecting up-river or across the watershed.
To get some sort of perspective, view:
http://www1.american.edu/ted/ice/yanomami.htm
@11 There are, reportedly, approximately 20,000 Yanomami. Would you like to start from there?
Sep 07th, 2012 - 06:23 pm - Link - Report abuse 0This is certainly a weird story. What we know for certain is that Chavez is pro-indigenous rights, coming from indigenous stock himself, and the opposition are absurdly racist...
Sep 08th, 2012 - 10:30 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Another true local story - were the hell is guzz?
Sep 09th, 2012 - 05:19 am - Link - Report abuse 0Commenting for this story is now closed.
If you have a Facebook account, become a fan and comment on our Facebook Page!