McNair Paper Number 53, Chapter 1, Notes, October 1996
1. Although census information on ethnicity is unreliable, most estimates of the percentage of Indians in the total population in the region converge on the figure of 10 percent. This average belies the concentration of Indians in several countries where they comprise more than one-third of the population: Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Peru. The indigenous population of Belize, Chile, El Salvador, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and Suriname lies between 5 to 20 percent of the total population, while in the remainder of the countries in the hemisphere, Indians are less than 5 percent of the total [R. Jordan Pandor, "Desarrollo y Poblaciones IndRgenas de AmJrica Latina y el Caribe" (Instituto Indigenista Interamericano and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, 1990); Nina Serafino, Latin American Indigenous Peoples and considerations for U.S. Assistance (Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 30 August 1991)].
2. James Brooke, "Peru's War With Ecuador Traps Indians" (New York Times, 2 February 1995); W. R. Long, "Peru-Ecuador War Hurts Indians on Both Sides" (Los Angeles Times, 9 February 1995).
3. Amazon Update (Washington, DC: Coalition in Support of Amazonian Peoples and their Environment, 20 February 1995).
4. Three Venezuelan navy infantrymen remain missing. A similar incident occurred in November 1994, in which two Venezuelan national guardsmen were killed ("Protest to Colombia," Latin American Weekly Report, 9 March 1995, 101; Reuters News Agency, 26 February 1995).
5. The other country in Latin America where indigenous affairs remain under the bureaucratic control of the military is Paraguay.
6. Carlos Frederico MarJs de Souza, "On Brazil and Its Indians," in Indigenous Peoples and Democracy in Latin America, ed. Donna Lee Van Cott (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994), 213-234.
7. There are approximately 9,900 Yanomami in Brazil, most of whom live in a reserve in Roraima state created by the Collor administration the size of Portugal. The Macuxi number about 9,000 and also live in Roraima (LARR-Brazil 1995, 7). Under the 1988 Constitution, the federal government was committed to demarcating all lands traditionally occupied by Indians by October 1993. Of the 519 they were supposed to complete, 251 were completed by the deadline (Congress, House, Committee on Foreign Affairs, statement by Stephan Schwartzman before the Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere Affairs, 14 July 1993, 3.
8. "Brazilian Senate Wishes to Review the Demarcation of Indian Lands" [Brasilia: Indianist Missionary Council (CIMI), 21 December 1994); "Row Over Indian Land Demarcation: Cardoso lobbied to Rule in Favor of Private Interests" (Latin American Weekly Report, 13 July 1995), 7].
9. The Indian Council of Roraima reported in May of 1995 that, due to violence and diseases spread by the miners, the survival of the Yanomami is in doubt. In the last seven years, 21 percent of the population has died. The mortality rate is growing, while the birth rate has declined. Malaria, the most deadly disease, is believed to have infected 80 percent of the Yanomami, who lack access to basic healthcare. "Mortality Grows Among Yanomami" [Brasilia: Indianist Missionary Council (CIMI), 3 May 1995].
10. U. S. Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1994 (Washington, DC: Department of State, 1995).
11. "Urgent Action: Write Brazil's President and Justice Minister to Protest Police Action Against Macuxi Indians," Sao Paulo: Rainforest Action Network and ProIndian Commission of Sao Paulo, 10 January 1995; "Second Thoughts About the Yanomami. Pressure on the Biggest Reservation is Growing," Latin American Regional Reports-Brazil, 15 February 1995, 7.
12. "Federal Administration says it will Demarcate Krikati Indian Area" (Brasilia: Indianist Missionary Council, 3 February 1995).
13. "Brazilian Senate Wishes to Review the Demarcation of Indian Lands" (Brasilia: Indianist Missionary Council, 21 December 1994).
14. Relations between Indians and the military are also tense in Venezuela where, in February of 1994, three Yupca Indians were shot and killed by soldiers after Yupca women tried to prevent them from taking wood they had cut from Yupca territory (USDOS 1995) ["Urgent Action: Write Brazil's President and Justice Minister to Protest Police Action Against Macuxi Indians" (Sao Paulo: Rainforest Action Network and ProIndian Commission of Sao Paulo, 10 January 1995); "Brazilian Government Deals with Indian Matters as a National Security Issue" (Brasilia: Indianist Missionary Council, 29 September 1994); "Brazilian Senate Wishes to Review the Demarcation of Indian Lands" (Brasilia: Indianist Missionary Council, 21 December 1994); "Federal Administration says it will Demarcate Krikati Indian Area" (Brasilia: Indianist Missionary Council, 3 February 1995)].
15. Van Cott, Indigenous Peoples; Jesds Avirama and Rayda M(rquez, "The Indigenous Movement in Colombia," in Van Cott, 83-106; Richard N. Adams, "The Political Status of the Guatemalan Maya," in Van Cott, 155-186; MarRa Isabel Remy, "The Construction of Democracy in Peru," in Van Cott, 107-130.
16. Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1994.
17. Xavier Alb(, "El retorno del indio," Revista Andina 9, no. 2 (December 1991): 310.
18. Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1994.
20. Personal communication with Eusebio Castro, 8 March 1995.
25. Estuardo Zapeta, "Guatemala Peace Talks: Are Maya Rights Negotiable?" Abya Yala News 8, no. 4 (Winter, 1994): 26, 37.
26. The ILO Convention 169 (1989) has been signed by Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Norway, and Paraguay.
27. According to Adams, the government has consistently failed to create a legal definition of "indigenousness" or to grant special protections for indigenous rights or lands. There are five articles in the 1985 Constitution on "Indigenous Communities," but implementing legislation has not been promulgated (Adams, 156-8).
29. "Guatemala: Peace Talks on the Rocks," Central America Report (3 February, 1995): 7-8.
30. "The Maya vision of a new Guatemala: Beyond the peace talks, a package of thorny demands," Latin American Weekly Report, 9 March 1994, 534.
32. According to Harvey Kline, the QuintRn Lame was formed in 1984 [Harvey Kline, "Colombia: Building Democracy in the Midst of Violence and Drugs," Inter-American Dialogue Conference on Democratic Governance, Washington, DC, 11-12 December 1994; Avirama and M(rquez, 88-89; "Why We Abandoned Our Guns. Quintin Lame Speaks," Unidad IndRgena no. 99 (May), reprinted in SAIIC Newsletter 6, nos. 1 and 2 (Spring-Summer 1991): 10.]
33. Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1994.
34. Xavier Alb(, "And from Kataristas to MNRistas? The Surprising and Bold Alliance Between Aymaras and Neoliberals in Bolivia," in Van Cott, 79-21; Eduardo Gamarra, "Managing Bolivian Democracy in the 1990s," Inter-American Dialogue Conference on Democratic Governance, Washington, DC, 11-12 December 1994, 12.
35. David Clark Scott, "Chiapas Rebellion Sparks Indian Dissent Across Mexico," Christian Science Monitor, 11 February 1994, 1.
36. Amnesty International, The Americas: Human Rights Violations Against Indigenous Peoples (New York: Amnesty International, 1992), 44-45; Avirama and M(rquez, 90.
37. Personal communication with Jesds Avirama, December 1993.
38. David Scott Palmer, "Peru, the Drug Business, and Shining Path: Between Scylla and Charybdis?" Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs 34, no. 3 (Fall 1992): 68-70.
39. Kevin Healy, "Coca, the State, and the Peasantry in Bolivia, 1982-1988," Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs 30, nos. 2 and 3 (Summer/Fall 1989): 106; Kevin Healy, "The Role of Economic Development and the War on Drugs: A Focus on Peasant Development Prospects in Peru and Bolivia," manuscript, 1993.
40. Healy, "Coca, the State, and the Peasantry in Bolivia," 106-108, 115-116.
41. "Bolivian Government, unions reach agreement," Associated Press, 28 April 1995; "S(nchez de Lozada declares state of siege as strikers and clashes spread," Latin American Weekly Report, 4 May 1995, 1.
42. Donna Lee Van Cott, "Violence, Rebellion in Ecuador," Journal of Commerce, 14 July 1994, editorial page.
43. Declaration of Temuco, Consejo de Todas las Tierras, 2 December 1994; "Mapuche Indians ask for Legal Protection from NAFTA," Andean Newsletter 97 (December 1994): 2.
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