Yesterday the human rights organisation Survival International published an article declaring their doubt of the killings in the Yanomami settlement in southern Venezuela in July.

Yanomami organisations had reported the attack on one of their communities in the Irotatheri region in Venezuela, close to the Brazilian border.

The attack was alleged to have been carried out by a group of illegal gold miners operating in the area and at least 80 people of the Yanomami were killed. Neighbouring Yanomami villages claimed to have found traces of the massacre with dead bodies and burnt huts.

Survival International now has reasons to believe that the attack never took place. The organisation’s director, Stephen Corry, said: “After having received statements from reliable sources, Survival now believes that the attack towards the Yanomami community in Irotatheri never happened.”

Venezuelan authorities have also failed to find traces of an attack. At the same time they deny mining activities in the area.

The issue with illegal mining for gold in the area has since long posed a threat towards the large indigenous group. The mining activities brought increased levels of violence, disease and contamination, and according to Survival International “tension remains high”.

Survival International continues working for the rights of the Yanomami and urges the Venezuelan government to evict illegal invaders from the country’s indigenous territories.

The Venezuelan Government announced yesterday that they are investigating allegations that illegal miners massacred dozens living in a Yanomami tribe near the border of Brazil.

The indigenous community of Irotatheri was reportedly attacked last month in the southern Venezuelan Amazon. Although the number of people slain is still unknown, survivors of the massacre and people from nearby villages claim at least 80 people were murdered.

Luis Shatiwe Ahiwei, leader of the Horonami Yanomami Organization, told the New Zealand Herald that visitors from a nearby village found charred bodies and the community’s shabono torched, the shabono is a circular hut where generally dozens of people live.

Due to the community’s remote location it took days for those who discovered the bodies to report the incident to the nearest settlement.

According to the Yanomami organization only three survivors have been accounted for. Ahiwei said the survivors told him they had been out hunting when the hut was set on fire. He said they heard gunshots, explosions and the sound of a helicopter, which is sometimes used by illegal miners to fly in supplies.

The attack prompted indigenous activist groups to call on the Venezuelan government to investigate and to work with Brazil in order to control the movement of miners in the area.

The Yanomami remain one of the largest isolated indigenous groups in the Amazon with an estimated population of 30,000 living in both Venezuela and Brazil. They have maintained their own language as well as traditions such as face paint and wooden facial ornaments.

In recent years the soaring price of gold throughout world markets has created an increase in illegal gold miners that encroach on the Yanomami’s land.

“For three years we have been denouncing the situation,” said Ahiwei to Survival. “There are lots of gold miners working illegally in the forest.”

Numerous Yanomami activists pointed to an attack in 1993 where Brazilian miners killed 16 people, and in 2010 when four people in the indigenous community were killed due to water contaminated by mining.

“This is another appalling tragedy for the Yanomami — heaping crime upon crime,” said Stephen Corry, director of Survival to CNN. “All Amazonian governments must stop the rampant illegal mining, logging and settlement in indigenous territories.”

Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez announced the creation of a fund to help victims of Saturday’s oil refinery explosion, whose death toll has now been revised up to 41, with a number still unaccounted for.

The fund of 100m bolívares (US$23m) has been put aside for reconstruction works, compensation for victims, pensions for widows and grants for the children of the deceased to study.

The fund will be jointly administered by the Venezuelan petroleum organisation, PDVSA, and the government of the state of Falcón.

Some 500 houses were affected by the explosion, with more than ten completely lost in the blast. Chávez also announced that for those who had lost their homes, 60 houses were ready for families, with a further 200 promised over the course of the next month.

The president went on to thank all the emergency workers and medical staff who had been working around the clock since the blast.

Firefighters continue to battle with the flames, although the situation is now said to be under control.

The refinery remains closed as a result of the damage caused by the blast, and that, combined with the closing of off-shore rigs in the Gulf of Mexico as a result of Tropical Storm Isaac, currently sweeping through the Caribbean, is likely to lead to a spike in the price of oil.

Venezuela experienced one of its worst oil industry related disasters in history as a huge explosion tore through the Amuay refinery on Saturday, killing 39 and injuring at least 80. Amongst those killed were 18 members of the national guard who had entered the refinery after the explosion in an attempt to rescue survivors.

The blast was so strong it threw balls of fire into the air, and ripped windows out of nearby homes, leaving the streets strewn with rubble and debris. A day after the blast, flames reaching over 30m into the air could still be seen. The explosion appears to have been caused by a natural gas leak.

President Hugo Chávez declared three days of national mourning, but said Amuay, Venezuela’s biggest refinery, and one of the biggest in the world, would be up and running again within two days, and assured the country would meet its international fuel commitments.

Amuay is part of the Paraguaná refinery complex based in Punto Fijo in western Venezuela, which also includes the Cardón refinery. Together, they process about 900,000 barrels of crude a day and 200,000 barrels of petrol.

Twenty-five people have been killed and dozens more wounded after inmates waged a gun battle inside the Yare I prison, Venezuelan officials said Monday.

The bloody conflict erupted during visiting hours leaving more than 1,000 visitors trapped inside the jail as opposing gang members exchanged shots. Twenty-five people were killed including at least one visitor, and 43 others injured.

Prisons Minister Iris Varela said that violence erupted on Sunday after a shot was fired during a discussion between inmates.

“We are taking all the necessary steps to avoid a repeat of such an incident, and we are proceeding with the disarming of the prison population,” said Varela in a press release.

Varela told state televisions that 17 of the 25 dead had been identified.

The armed inmates had taken control of the jail until Monday when Varela said the situation had been stabilised and authorities were talking with inmates in order to re-impose state control.

Outside the prison relatives of visitors and inmates crowded around the barrier weeping and waiting for news from inside the prison.

The battle at Yare I is one of the deadliest in a series of recent prison riots that have rocked the Venezuelan jail system and its overcrowded prisons. Yare I was built to house 750 inmates but currently holds more than 3,000 prisoners.

The inmates allegedly get weapons from corrupt prison guards and as a result prison scraps between opposing gang members quickly escalate into full blown gun fights.

The Venezuelan Prisons Observatory (OPV) claims 560 people were killed in Venezuelan prisons last year. However, the pace has increased this year with the current death toll at 304.

According to OPV Venezuela currently has 33 prisons with more than 50,000 inmates although the prisons are built to hold about 14,000.

Just last month another riot killed 22 people and left the jail at the mercy of gang leaders for 20 days. The violence at the Cepra penitentiary in Merida province forced the government to negotiate for weeks with the riot leaders until they finally surrendered.

Last year President Hugo Chavez created the Prisons Ministry after a deadly armed uprising at the prisons El Rodeo I and El Rodeo II, just outside Caracas. He also announced plans to build new prisons, improve conditions, and speed up trials for inmates who have not been sentenced.

Varela has said that of the 50,000 inmates 20,000 are undeserving of the jail time because of very minor infractions.

However, after Yare I, political opponent Henrique Capriles wrote on Twitter that the riot is evidence of the lack of improvement in jails calling it, “another big lie by the government.”

The prison system has become a big issue ahead of the national election that is set to take place on 7th October.  

Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, has granted the United States officials access to a US citizen that was arrested after illegally entering the country from Colombia a week ago.

The arrested has been previously called an ‘ex marine’ or ‘mercenary’ who illegally entered the country. The detainee was suspected to have entered in order to destroy coordinates in a notebook. The president of Venezuela highlighted that there were stamps in the detainees from Iraq, Afghanistan and Jordan.

Although the United States is sceptical of the arrested being a mercenary, they requested access last Friday.

“Of course we have authorized it,” Chavez told reporters. He also stated that tomorrow the United States will have contact with the detained.

Opponents of Chavez have stated that the arrest comes at a time when elections are approaching for both Venezuela, the 7th October, and the United States, the 6th November. Some Chavez critics have stated that the arrest was exaggerated for political purposes.

However, Chavez responded that the arrest was based on serious concerns stating that some spokesmen “try to minimize and trivialize any serious information like this, that this is a person who entered illegally in Tachira (state), fleeing from Colombia”.

“We still don’t know his intentions. He’s detained, being interrogated,” he added.

The Venezuelan president in approaching his fight for a third, six-year term but has received rigorous opposition from candidate Henrique Capriles as well as concerns about the president’s current health conditions.

Since Chavez took power, there have been conflicts between the countries but the recent event has not sparked new controversy.

Venezuela was accepted as a full member of Mercosur on 31^st July, after a 6-year wait. Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay welcomed the oil rich nation with open arms; however, Paraguay remains suspended from Mercosur and was unable to vote, leading to accusations of illegality around Venezuela’s acceptance. We took to the streets of Buenos Aires to ask the public what they thought about Mercosur’s new member.

Portraits by Amy Cooper Goodrich

Graciella Bie, 64, architect, La Plata

The incorporation of Venezuela into the bloc seems like a really good thing to me. I think it’s a really interesting development in terms of strengthening all of South America and I think it’s going to be good for the region, especially in terms of oil.

I don’t agree that it was wrong to make the decision without Paraguay. Paraguay broke their constitution in ejecting Lugo so they don’t deserve to vote. Mercosur should still be able to function as in institution while turning their back on Paraguay. It’s not personal, it’s about the bigger picture. In the current context it’s necessary to stick together as a body, like Europe is doing, I think it’s excellent.

Juan Vicente Tapia, 62, caretaker, San Telmo

I think all the countries in South America shoud be united and the inclusion of Venezuela in Mercosur is a good thing. Paraguay have done something undemocratic in ousting the president by force and they don’t deserve to vote or to be involved in Mercosur at the moment. Venezuela deserve to be full members, all of the countries in South America should be together and united, just like Europe, like Asia. I love peace and I would like for all of the world to be united, I wish we could get rid of the borders.

Lucia, 45, lawyer, Montserrat

I think the inclusion of Venezuela is a good thing, at the very least it makes economic sense and there aren’t too many issues within the country apart from problems with insecurity which doesn’t affect the whole country. Economically it has to be beneficial, uniting the countries in this region in an economic bloc and bringing together the banks and the resources in the region is a good move.

Some people are saying it’s illegal but I don’t think it is. I don’t think it’s illegal at all. I think that the bringing together of these countries is inconvenient for other areas, for other markets, and that’s why people have a problem with it.

  Samanta Bermúdez, 19, student, San Telmo

Really I think that all international blocs, like in Europe and Mercosur are bad because some countries are left out. I don’t think it really helps anyone to separate countries like this, it ends up creating big issues with differences in social class, and generates bigger conflicts. I think countries end up feeling resentful and it leads to big conflicts and even wars in the long run. For me though, as an Ecuadorian, it is really good to be able to travel freely between countries without needing loads of documents, so there are some good things.

Santiago Del Campo, 32, antiques shop owner, San Telmo

It seems like a good thing to me, it’s the financial and industrial strength that’s missing from Mercosur, it’s going to be valuable to have a partner with such a strong oil resource. In the current economic crisis it will be useful to have an ally with such a good oil industry and I think it will help the region a lot.

It is a strange time for Mercosur at the moment with the situation in Paraguay. Ultimately though the people didn’t vote for the current president so it’s not democracy. The people in power at the moment don’t represent the Paraguayan people so I think it’s right that Mercosur have suspended them and it’s good that Venezuela have become a new partner.

Hugo Chavez and Dilma Rousseff in Brasilia 2011. (Photo: Roberto Stuckert Filho)

In a special summit held in Brasilia on 30^th July, Venezuela formally became a full member of Mercosur and will officially participate with all rights and obligations in the trade bloc beginning in mid-August.

Mercosur had consisted of the same four, full member nations since the signing of the Treaty of Asunción in 1991, but after Paraguay’s Congress ousted former leader Fernando Lugo from power in a two-day impeachment process, Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay cited a rupture of the democratic order in the country and suspended its fourth founding member.

Until elections in April 2013— or at least until the full restoration of democratic order in Paraguay— the country has effectively lost its membership privileges in the organisation.

Meanwhile, the ousting of Paraguay provided a convenient moment for Venezuela´s entry— an event the Paraguayan Ministry of Foreign Relations called an “unacceptable outrage” and “a gross violation of the Treaty of Asuncion.”

Venezuela had been trying to join Mercosur since 2004, but Paraguay’s Senate ironically cited a lack of democracy in order to block its full membership, and members agreed upon the country’s associate member status with the Protocol of Adhesion of Venezuela to Mercosur in 2006.

Mercosur: Past and Present

Mercosur Members (Image: Camilo Sanchez)

Mercosur, or the ‘Common Market of the South’, is an economic organisation that promotes the free movement of goods, services and people among South American member states. Preceded by the creation and subsequent dissolution of other common markets such as the Latin American Free Trade Association (LAFTA), the current body burgeoned from the Integration and Economics Cooperation Program of Brazil and Argentina, and eventually became a broader agreement between additional regional economies.

Throughout its short history, the organisation has faced a myriad of challenges, such as how to integrate member countries with vastly different economic policies, how to ensure smaller countries have a fair say, or how to manage the economic crises in Brazil and Argentina, with varying degrees of success.

“The emergence of Mercosur was faster and a lot less careful than that of the European Union,” says Ricardo Romero, a professor at the Universidad de Buenos Aires who specialises in Brazilian politics.

Most recently though, the disproportionate economic growth of the region and the organisation’s failure to increase trade with international markets have led some analysts to question its relevance.

Although Mercosur lists the elimination of customs duties and restrictions on the movement of goods between member countries as one of its principal goals, members of the trade bloc have instituted a slew of protectionist measures and failed to normalise trade relations among each other. The Council on Foreign Relations notes that Argentina blocked and delayed imports from Brazil in order to protect its trade surplus, and Brazil retaliated by imposing barriers on imports from Argentina.

Venezuela in Mercosur

The incorporation of the fifth sovereign member, however, significantly alters the composition and modus operandi of Mercosur by reinforcing the inward focus of the trade bloc.

“You will see the strengthening of sectors within a continental framework,” says Romero. “Venezuela´s incorporation signifies a deepening of the internal market and regional consolidation.”

Until now, Uruguay and Paraguay wielded a lesser influence on Mercosur compared to Brazil and Argentina, but the union of Brazil, South America’s superpower, with the agricultural giant of Argentina and the oil titan of Venezuela, significantly increases the likelihood of expanded regional relations and heralds the onset of a new, powerful trifecta.

“Venezuela has the capacity to supply oil to the region, and the region has a need for oil,” Romero also said, while noting the convergence of three fertile basins: Río de Plata, Orinoco, and Amazon.

Oil Installations in Puerto La Cruz – Venezuela (Photo: Jumanji Solar)

According to The World Factbook, oil revenues account for approximately 95% of Venezuela´s export earnings, 40% of federal budget revenues, and around 12% of its GDP. As of 2010, the country produced 2,375 million barrels of oil a day.

Argentina and Venezuela have already signed an agreement to explore oilfields in both countries and develop an energy plan between their oil companies, partially state-owned YPF and state-owned PDVSA respectively.

Other agreements extend beyond the region´s natural resources. Before the last Mercosur summit in the Brazilian capital even began, Venezuela agreed to purchase six Embraer 190 airplanes from Brazil.

Greater access to the lucrative markets of each country will enable the bloc as a whole to become more dependent on fellow member states and less reliant on foreign powers. As such, President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil has stated that with the incorporation of Venezuela, Mercosur has become the fifth largest economy in the world, behind the United States, China, Japan, and Germany.

On another level, the political parties of individual member states have historically determined the economic organisation’s agenda and repeatedly put their own interests before those of the region.

Venezuela’s inclusion, however, binds four ideologically compatible countries even closer together and could theoretically provides a plane for the bloc to work towards common goals.”

“From a political standpoint, the changes are extremely clear,” says Alejandro Rossi, a political scientist also at the Universidad de Buenos Aires.

Charismatic Chavez giving a speech. (Photo: Bernardo Londoy)

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez from the United Socialist Party, who has nationalised key energy companies and is a close ally of Cuba, joins the left-leaning governments of Rousseff, José Mujica in Uruguay, and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, a president who has introduced strong and controversial economic controls in Argentina throughout the past year.

“It is as politically important for Chávez to enter Mercosur as it is for Argentina to find an ally in Venezuela for many of the policies that it is starting to carry forward,” says Rossi. “Argentina is trying, or is at least poised to make, what is called the grand fatherland of South America, and Chávez is a representative of a Latin American thought more independent than that of other international centres.¨

The Future Ahead

Proponents of economic liberalisation fear that the incorporation of Venezuela in Mercosur could isolate South America from the rest of the world, and leads them to question whether the organisation will be able to grow as much as Rousseff would like, since Chávez is adamantly against free trade. Trade disputes between Argentina and Brazil suggest that full members will have to overcome the temptation to protect their individual economies before larger attempts at continental protectionist policies even have a chance to be successful.

Meanwhile, Ecuador and Bolivia have already expressed interest in joining Mercosur as full members.

Since it is an election year in Venezuela though, Hugo Chávez might be winning no matter what happens to the trade bloc.

Click here to find out what Argentines think about Venezuela joining Mercosur.

The first electronic thumb readers to be used in the next Venezuelan elections were tested yesterday. The readers will identify voters and activate the ballot system, raising concerns around the fairness and anonymity in the 7^th October elections.

Finger print recognition has always been used at the entrance to polling stations, however this is the first time that voters’ identities will be used to activate the system. Candidates will press their thumb on a pad which will cross references the image with a government database collected from identity cards.

The system is not designed to record voting preferences, though many argue it will intimidate people from voting against Chavez. Critics also claim that it is not effective enough to fulfil its remit of ensuring each voter casts a single vote.

The potential for intimidation is particularly concerning in the context of a previous scandal which saw hundreds of state workers fired after their votes against Chavez were made public.

The scandal surrounded the publication of a petition of 3.4m Venezuelans supporting the recall of Chavez in a referendum. The “Tascon List” was published by member of the National Assembly, Luis Tascon.

Subsequently, thousands of Venezuelans lost their jobs in a process described by some as a ‘witch hunt’. Chavez claimed he wanted to “bury the list” and move on, however opposition leaders argue this precedent means the public will be fearful of divulging their identity if voting against the current president.

“A government that has fired people for thinking different, for voting different, that drew up the Tascon List and that puts out thumbprint machines, that puts in people’s minds … makes them fear the thumbprint,” said Ramon Muchacho, an opposition politician.

However experts say there is no evidence to suggest the system would be used to reveal voting preferencess and many opposition leaders are in favour of the change.

This is the latest complaint of bias in the National Electoral Council, which many say favours Chavez. Members of the Council are appointed by the National Assembly, which has been strongly Chavez for several years, and recent complaints around the Chavez campaign have been mainly ignored.

However Tibisay Lucena, president of the electoral council since 2006, insists the body is fully independent.

“The Venezuelan electoral process is one of the most audited in the world,” Lucena told reporters recently. “We have controls that make impossible any attempt to interfere with the public will, ” she said.

Following the Mercosur meeting in Brasilia, Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and Venezuelan President, Hugo Chávez, signed a cooperation agreement to develop a strategic energy plan between state oil companies YPF and PDVSA.

Venezuela officially joined Mercosur yesterday at the summit, following Paraguay’s suspension.

The meeting took place on Tuesday at the Argentine embassy in the Brazilian capital. After signing the accord, Cristina Fernández stated that Mercosur “should aspire to become the fifth global economy behind the US, China, Germany and Japan.”

The agreement ratifies a decision to identify opportunities and coordinate strategic participation for planning in the distribution of hydrocarbons, both in Venezuela and in Argentina.

In addition, projects already implemented will be optimised for both parties and new ones will be launched.

For this purpose, according to the text of the agreement “an Energy Cooperation Strategic Plan will be nominated so that closer links can target the companies to increase crude production in both countries”.

As part of the union, YPF will be incorporated to the Ayacucho Areas 6 of the Orinocco shale deposits currently in production while PDVSA will join “oil and gas exploitation projects” in Argentina.

The two companies are expected to come up with a portfolio of projects in the form of a proposal with the objective of collecting funds for short, medium, and long-term execution of the different initiatives.

PDVSA will participate in petrochemical and technology transfer projects or in any other form of cooperation to which both sides agree. The administration and procedures of different projects will be the responsibility of Venezuela’s Oil and Mines ministry and the Argentine Federal Planning Ministry.

The agreement solidifies the close friendship and cooperation links between the two countries.