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Chavez ousts "Christian Colonialists"
(Aljazeera.Net, 13 October 2005)
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has ordered a US-based Christian missionary group working with indigenous tribes to leave the country, accusing the organisation of imperialist infiltration and links to the CIA. . . . Chavez said missionaries of the New Tribes Mission, based in Sanford, Florida, were no longer welcome. He spoke at a ceremony in a remote Indian village where he presented property titles to several indigenous groups. . . . "The New Tribes are leaving Venezuela. This is an irreversible decision that I have made," Chavez said on Wednesday. . . . "We don't want the New Tribes here. Enough colonialism!" . . . He accused the missionaries of building luxurious camps next to impoverished Indian villages and circumventing Venezuelan customs authorities as they freely flew in and out on private planes. . . . "These violations of our national sovereignty have to stop," Chavez said. . . . The group is involved in "true imperialist infiltration, the CIA, they take away sensitive, strategic information", Chavez said, without elaborating. . . . The New Tribes Mission specialises in evangelism among indigenous groups in the world's remotest places. . . . The organisation says it has 3200 workers and operations in 17 nations across Latin America, Southeast Asia and West Africa. . . . Indian homeland: During the ceremony, Chavez granted 15 property titles for more than 665,847 hectares (1.65 million acres) to the Cuiba, Yuaruro, Warao and Karina tribes. . . . The documents recognise collective ownership of ancestral lands by communities with some 3000 people. . . . "We are doing justice," Chavez said. . . . "We can now start to say that there is a homeland for the Indians." . . . Hundreds of people from various indigenous groups attended the ceremony in the southern state of Apure. Chavez also presented keys to tractors, pickup trucks and outboard motors. . . . "Previously, the indigenous people of Venezuela were removed from our lands. This is historic. It is a joyful day," said Librado Moraleda, a 52-year-old Warao from a remote village in the Orinoco River Delta. . . . Moraleda received a land title and government pledges of 57 million bolivars ($27,000; 22,000) to build homes and plant cassava and plantains. . . . Chavez held the ceremony on the holiday known as Columbus Day, marking the arrival of European explorers in the present-day Bahamas on 12 October 1492. . . . Chavez's government renamed the holiday Day of Indigenous Resistance three years ago. . . . Chavez says he is leading a "revolution" for the poor and that defending the rights of Venezuelan's 300,000 indigenous people is a priority.

posted by LoZo 7:36 AM