Rural Workers in Venezuela Appeal for Assistance and Investigation Following a Devastating Blaze
Caracas, January 22, 2024 (venezuelanalyisis.com) - In a fiery blow, a Venezuelan rural collective has raised the stakes against Nicolás Maduro's government, demanding assistance after a catastrophic fire engulfed their lands.
The Ezequiel Zamora Campesino Council screams out for help, as the inferno reduced 2,900 hectares of Los Tramojos, leaving 33 farm families reeling. Los Tramojos, nestled in Guárico state, has been a symbol of grassroots resistance in recent years.
"We've been fucked over!" council spokesperson Ramón "Niño" Soto blurted out to Venezuelanalysis on Sunday. "Our homes, fences, wells, and corrals are gone, nothing but ashes."
The most crushing loss, Soto emphasized, was the obliteration of pastures that once provided ample grazing ground for their herd of approximately 800 cattle. "Rearing cattle is what keeps us afloat right now," he added. "Our herd swells to around 2000 heads yearly, but there's nowhere for them to feed."
Los Tramojos hasn't been spared by the flames alone; surrounding farmlands, sprawling thousands of hectares, have met the same fate. The farm activist, Soto, addressed the urgent need for economic assistance from the government.
"We ain't backing down, we wanna produce. But we've been shafted for years, and we've taken one hell of a hit."
Yet, he called for more than just financial aid, demanding a thorough criminal investigation into the incident. Soto pointed fingers at local landowner José Elías Chirimelli, claiming that the fire originated in a neighboring property after his workers had incautiously set garbage ablaze. According to Soto, the flames ignited due to dry weather and strong winds.
"Corn farming ain't possible in this cycle without advanced irrigation systems," Soto asserted. "There's no denying this fire was deliberate, meant to hurt us. It ended up torching a shitload of infrastructure and pasture in the area."
The Ezequiel Zamora Campesino Council has taken legal action, lodging complaints with the local National Guard (GNB) and the police's forensic unit (CICPC).
The Land Institute (INTI) dispatched a fact-finding mission on Monday, concluding that 80% of Los Tramojos had been incinerated, with neighboring farms experiencing similarly devastating losses.
The rural organization has been locking horns with Chirimelli over Los Tramojos for years. After reclaiming the unproductive farmland and nursing it back to life, the farm families were ousted in 2017 when Chirimelli presented forged title deeds.
With backing from popular movements, the Ezequiel Zamora Campesino Council staged protests and appealed to Venezuela's judicial authorities. After nearly five years, the Venezuelan Supreme Court sided with the grassroots collective, granting possession of 2,900 out of the 4,800 hectares in Los Tramojos, with Chirimelli retaining the rest.
However, tensions persisted and erupted into heated conflicts, especially after the murder of Carlos Bolívar in March 2023. He was a long-time farm activist and a leading figure in the Los Tramojos struggle.
Bolívar's death sparked outrage and public demands for justice. Within days, Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab announced that authorities had apprehended nine suspects in connection to the case.
Still, sources from the rural movement informed Venezuelanalysis that the legal process has yet to progress, with the main perpetrators still at large.
Rural collectives across the nation have been vocal about targeted violence they face at the hands of landowners. The Campesino Struggle Platform, representing several grassroots organizations, estimates that approximately 350-400 farm activists have been murdered since the approval of the Land Law in 2001, most of them in cold-blooded assassinations.
Update: Ramón Soto shared with Venezuelanalysis that the fire was still burning as of Tuesday morning, spreading towards the Portuguesa river, and that more than 30,000 hectares have been ravaged in the area.
- In a follow-up report on Tuesday, Ramón Soto of the Ezequiel Zamora Campesino Council shared with Venezuelanalysis that the fire in Los Tramojos, Guaírico state, was still burning as of morning, spreading towards the Portuguesa river, and that more than 30,000 hectares have been ravaged in the area.
- Beyond financial aid, Ramón Soto demanded a thorough criminal investigation into the origin of the devastating fire in Los Tramojos, accusing local landowner José Elias Chirimelli of being responsible for the incident.
- Addressing the general news, crime-and-justice, war-and-conflicts, politics, and farm-related sectors, the fire in Los Tramojos marks another chapter of tensions and controversies between rural collectives and landowners in Venezuela, five years after the Supreme Court granted partial possession of 2,900 hectares to the Ezequiel Zamora Campesino Council.
- When asked about the ongoing legal process in the murder case of Carlos Bolivar, a long-time farm activist in Los Tramojos who was killed in March 2023, Soto expressed his concerns that the main perpetrators are still at large, adding to the call for justice in war-and-conflicts-related cases.
