By Melquiades Avila.
Kape Kape, an NGO that defends Native Venezuelan rights, denounced June, 13 that the expulsion of a Warao family from a shelter located in Manaus, Brazil, caused seven other Warao family groups to abandon the facility in protest.
In its report, published on the website www.kapekape.org, it states that the event caused discomfort among the indigenous members so seven more families chose to abandon the shelter in solidarity with the expelled family.
The organization mentions the testimony of the missionary, Josia Kokal, who assures that a native family, headed by Maria Nieves Moraleda, mother of six children, including an eight-year-old girl affected by tuberculosis, was thrown into the street for violated the rules of the place four times, according to the warning of the shelter workers.
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“I have personally talked extensively with the indigenous woman, and she clarifies that she went out twice to work because her children had gone two days without food; she also needed to buy diapers and soap,” the priest says.
On 15 June, Kokal confirmed by telephone to El Pitazo that the expulsion of the Waraos ordered by the Secretariat of Women and Citizen Assistance, the institution that manages the shelter set up for Warao migrants in the Prefecture of Manaus, where approximately 700 indigenous Venezuelans staying overnight.
Additionally, the priest reported that the eight families have since relocated and are currently in a private house. “A lady offered them a rental without any down payment with the commitment of the Warao to cancel it in due time… I was told that the lady allowed them to occupy the house”, Kokal said.
The Observatory of Indigenous Rights, Kape Kape, joins the priest in demanding that local and international authorities reflect about the plight of the Warao.
