[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 43 (Monday, March 11, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2343-S2344]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               VENEZUELA

  Mr. WELCH. Madam President, indigenous people in Latin America and 
around the world are facing unprecedented threats to their communities 
and cultural survival. Faced with increasing intrusions of settlers, 
illegal miners, loggers, ranchers, wildlife traffickers, narcotics 
traffickers, and explorers for oil and gas, coupled with woefully 
inadequate police protection, they are among the world's most 
vulnerable people.
  This crisis is illustrated by the alarming situation facing the 
Yanomami people in the Upper Orinoco region of Venezuela, an area that 
is being destroyed by illegal gold miners. It is reminiscent of the 
decimation of Native American Tribes in past centuries in our own 
country, when millions were forced off their land, murdered, or 
infected with smallpox, measles, and other fatal diseases brought by 
White settlers.
  The Venezuelan Government has an obligation to guarantee the right to 
health, as part of the right to life, enshrined in the country's 
Constitution. In the case of indigenous people like the Yanomami, this 
includes the adaptation of health services and programs to their unique 
circumstances and needs.
  After the ``Haximu Massacre of the Yanomami'' in 1993, when 16 
Yanomami were killed by a group of illegal miners, was brought before 
the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the Venezuelan 
Government signed a settlement agreement that established commitments 
regarding surveillance and control of illegal mining and healthcare for 
the Yanomami people. Although the Yanomami Health Plan yielded positive 
results between 2005 and 2010, it began to decline due to lack of 
resources and is now almost completely defunct. Currently, there is no 
healthcare available in the Yanomami territory in the Upper Orinoco 
region.
  This crisis has resulted in a sharp increase in the prevalence of and 
death from preventable and curable diseases such as malaria and 
tuberculosis, among others. Malnutrition is also a pervasive problem, 
especially among children. Patients who require emergency treatment 
must be flown to Puerto Ayacucho, the state capital. The Yanomami in 
the border zone of Sierra Parima must go to Brazil to obtain health 
care.
  The Government of Venezuela has repeatedly failed to protect the 
Yanomami people from violence, child

[[Page S2344]]

labor, and forced labor and sexual exploitation from illegal miners. 
The increased flow of Brazilian wildcat miners, coming into Venezuela 
in partnership with the Venezuelan military and corrupt civilian 
authorities to mine for gold and cassiterite, is contributing to the 
transmission of infectious diseases for these vulnerable communities 
due to their lack of immunity. Malaria, sexually transmitted 
infections, and mercury poisoning are closely linked to illegal mining.
  According to the Yanomami's own records, between 2022 and mid-2023, 
35 people died from malaria and tuberculosis in different sectors of 
Sierra Parima, which comprises only a portion of the Upper Orinoco 
region. The Yanomami reported 350 deaths due mainly to malaria between 
November 2023 and February 2024. The serious epidemic and negligent 
inaction of the Venezuelan Government have forced the Yanomami to 
abandon their villages and flee into the forest to escape the malaria 
epidemic.
  Since 2021, the Venezuelan Government has received support from the 
Global Fund to Fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. The Venezuelan 
Ministry of Health, through the U.N. Development Program, receives the 
supplies that are part of the malaria elimination strategy--mosquito 
nets, rapid diagnostic kits, medical treatments, and other equipment. 
But sorely lacking are the transportation logistics, infrastructure, 
and personnel to carry out malaria control and prevention activities in 
remote indigenous communities.
  Anyone who has seen photographs of the devastation caused by illegal 
mining in the Upper Orinoco region cannot help but be appalled by the 
capacity of human greed to destroy the natural environment and the 
people and wildlife that depend on it. The Yanomami are responsible 
stewards of the forest who are being threatened, attacked, and infected 
by deadly diseases contracted from those who are illegally extracting 
resources from their territories.
  While the Venezuelan Government has contributed to their plight by 
allowing and even profiting from the illegal mining in that sensitive 
region, the United States has a positive role to play. The Barbados 
Accords, signed by the Maduro regime and the opposition Unitary 
Platform, were the result of negotiations between the Biden 
Administration and Mr. Maduro. They required the Venezuelan Government 
to create conditions for a free and fair election in 2024, and in 
return, the U.S. would grant licenses to relax sanctions on oil, bond, 
and gold transactions.
  Like many, I had hoped the Barbados Accords were the beginning of a 
path for Venezuela to move beyond the years of internal division, 
repression, corruption, and misery that have caused millions to flee 
the country. But Maduro reneged on his commitments and arrested leading 
opposition candidate Maria Corina Machado, and on January 29, the 
administration announced that the sanctions on gold will be snapped 
back in April.
  Perhaps Maduro will reverse course again and do what he agreed to do 
under the Barbados Accords. But whether he does or not, absent strong 
action by the international community to make it more difficult for 
illegal miners and their profiteers to launder the proceeds, the 
suffering of the Yanomami people is likely to continue unabated.

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