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Country Reports
VENEZUELA, Landmine Monitor Report 2001
 
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VENEZUELA

Key developments since May 2000: As of July 2001, Venezuela had not yet submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report, due 29 March 2000. Venezuelan military sources indicate that Venezuela holds a small number of antipersonnel mines in stock for training purposes.

Mine Ban Policy

Venezuela signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997, ratified on 14 April 1999, and the treaty entered into force for Venezuela on 1 October 1999. Venezuela has not enacted domestic implementation legislation.

Venezuela has not yet submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report, due by 29 March 2000, or the required annual updated report, due by 30 April 2001. In January 2001, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official told Landmine Monitor that it was the responsibility of the Ministry of Defense to prepare the report,[1] and an official at the Ministry of Defense stated that the Article 7 report was being prepared.[2] In February 2001, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs official stated that the Ministry had received an initial report from the Ministry of Defense, but it was incomplete and had been returned to the Joint Chiefs of Staff with a request for a report “in the most clear and transparent terms possible.”[3]

Venezuela attended the Second Meeting of States Parties in September 2000. It participated in the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in December 2000, but not in May 2001. In November 2000, Venezuela attended the Regional Seminar on Stockpile Destruction in the Americas, in Buenos Aires. Also in November, Venezuela voted in favor of UN General Assembly Resolution 55/33V, supporting the Mine Ban Treaty.

Venezuela is not a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Production, Transfer, Stockpiling and Use

Officials state that Venezuela has never produced or transferred antipersonnel landmines.[4] Retired General Alberto Muller Rojas, who was Comptroller of the Army in the 1980s, insisted to Landmine Monitor that the Venezuelan Company of Military Industries (CAVIM, Compañía Anónima Venezolana de la Industria Militar) did not manufacture landmines.[5] At the Buenos Aires regional landmine meeting, Major Josman Castillo Benítez also told Landmine Monitor that Venezuela has not produced antipersonnel mines.[6] However, the US Department of Defense indicates that Venezuela has produced the MV-1 antipersonnel mine, which it describes as an improvised fragmentation antipersonnel mine that uses an E-1 hand grenade fuse, is made from aluminum, and is black with orange markings on the top and the bottom of the mine.[7]

Venezuela is believed to have a stockpile of antipersonnel mines, but the size, composition and suppliers of the mines are still not known. General Rojas and Major Benítez told Landmine Monitor that Venezuela has a small number of mines for training purposes.[8] Some government officials contacted by Landmine Monitor stressed that they were not authorized to provide information on stockpiles, even though it was required by the Mine Ban Treaty to be made public in the Article 7 report required by 29 March 2000.[9] There is no information on whether Venezuela has a stockpile destruction plan.

There is no reliable information available on illegal trafficking of weapons, including antipersonnel mines, within Venezuelan territory. While Colombian political and military officials have previously commented that the illegal traffic of weapons in the border areas between the two countries could include antipersonnel mines, Landmine Monitor did not find any evidence of trafficking in antipersonnel mines along the border.[10]

None of the four NGOs contacted by Landmine Monitor who work in border areas in Amazonas, Apure and Zulia states, which are the most vulnerable to the activities of Colombian non-state actors, reported knowledge of antipersonnel mines or mined areas in border regions.

In January 2001, a local journalist working in the community of Guasdualito, told Landmine Monitor there were no known mines or minefields there.[11] Guasdalito at the time was the location of the First Theatre of Operations of the Venezuelan Army working on border security.

Landmine Monitor did not record any cases of peasants or landowners using homemade mines for security along the conflict-ridden border regions.

Mine Action Assistance

Venezuela continues to contribute military mine action experts on a regular basis to the MARMINCA mine clearance efforts in Central America.[12]

There are no known mine victims in Venezuela, and there are no organizations involved in victim assistance. Venezuela has a national health system with specialized services located in main urban centers, including rehabilitation services.

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[1] Interview with Richard Méndez, Second Secretary, Directorate of Multilateral Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Caracas, 10 January 2001.
[2] Telephone interview with Colonel Nelson Daniels, Director of Human Rights Affairs, Ministry of Defense, 15 January 2001.
[3] Response to Landmine Monitor questionnaire sent by by Richard Méndez, Second Secretary, Directorate of Multilateral Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Caracas, 16 February 2001.
[4] Telephone interview with Gerardo Delgado, Political Attaché, Venezuelan Embassy in Colombia, 12 December 1999.
[5] Telephone interview with General Alberto Muller Rojas (ret.), 30 November 2000.
[6] Interview with Mayor Josman Castillo Benítez, Armaments Service, Venezuelan Air Force, Buenos Aires, 6 November 2000.
[7] US Department of Defense, “ORDATA II, Version 1.0,” CD-ROM. This contains a photo and schematic drawing of the mine.
[8] Telephone interview with General Alberto Muller Rojas (ret.), 30 November 2000; Interview with Major Benítez, Venezuelan Air Force, 6 November 2000.
[9] Interview with Major Benítez, Venezuelan Air Force, Buenos Aires, 6 November 2000.
[10] Interview with Pedro Agustín Roa, Special Issues Unit, Disarmament Office Assistant, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bogotá, 10 December 1999; Interview with Major Anselmo Escobar, Human Rights Official, Fourth Brigade Colombian National Army, Medellin, 5 January 2000.
[11] Interview with Raiza Cepeda, 30 January 2001.
[12] Interview with Major Josman Castillo Benítez, Armaments Service, Venezuelan Air Force, Buenos Aires, 6 November 2000.