LM Report 2004

Venezuela

Key developments since May 2003: In November 2003, Venezuela officially reported that it completed destruction of its stockpile of 47,189 antipersonnel mines on 24 September 2003, just days ahead of the treaty deadline of 1 October 2003, and that 5,000 mines would be retained for training. An official later told Landmine Monitor that 4,960 antipersonnel mines remain, of which 3,960 mines will be destroyed by October 2004, leaving 1,000 mines for training.

Key developments since 1999: Venezuela ratified the Mine Ban Treaty on 14 April 1999, and the treaty entered into force on 1 October 1999. Venezuela’s initial Article 7 report, due 29 March 2000, was submitted in September 2002. Venezuela reported that it completed destruction of its stockpile of 47,189 antipersonnel mines on 24 September 2003. Venezuela has revealed that it laid antipersonnel mines in May 1998, five months after signing the Mine Ban Treaty.

Mine Ban Policy

Venezuela signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997, ratified on 14 April 1999, and the treaty entered into force on 1 October 1999. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said that legislation to implement the Mine Ban Treaty is not considered necessary, because when an international treaty is ratified, it immediately becomes national law.^[1] Neither the Ministry of Foreign Affairs nor the Armed Forces have proposed to the National Assembly that penal sanctions be enacted specifically for antipersonnel mines.^[2]

Venezuela participated actively in the Ottawa Process, including the Oslo negotiations where it caused some concern among ban campaigners by supporting several US proposals that would have weakened the treaty greatly. Since the treaty took effect, Venezuela has attended three of the five annual Meetings of States Parties (2000, 2001, and 2002), and most intersessional Standing Committee meetings, including in February and June 2004. It has voted in support of every annual pro-ban UN General Assembly resolutions since 1996, including UNGA Resolution 58/53 of 8 December 2003. Venezuela has also participated in several regional conferences, including in a regional seminar on stockpile destruction held in Buenos Aires, Argentina in November 2000 and a regional mine action seminar in Lima, Perú in August 2003.

As of 30 September 2004, Venezuela had not submitted its annual Article 7 transparency report, due 30 April 2004. It submitted its initial Article 7 report, due 1 March 2000, two and one-half years late on 10 September 2002. It provided an annual update on 15 May 2003.^[3] The Ministry of Defense is responsible for preparing the report, through the Director of Operations of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the National Armed Forces and the Directorate of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law of the National Armed Forces.

Venezuela has not engaged in the extensive discussions that States Parties have had on matters of interpretation and implementation related to Articles 1, 2, and 3. Thus, it has not made known its views on the issues of joint military operations with non-States Parties, foreign stockpiling and transit of antipersonnel mines, antivehicle mines with sensitive fuzes or antihandling devices, and the permissible number of mines retained for training.

While Venezuela is not a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), it has indicated its intent to ratify the CCW’s Amended Protocol II (Landmines) and attended the Fifth Annual Conference of States Parties as an observer in November 2003.^[4]

Production and Transfer

Venezuela reports that it is not a producer of antipersonnel mines.^[5] The country is not known to have exported antipersonnel mines. Information in Venezuela’s Article 7 reports indicates that in the past Venezuela obtained antipersonnel landmines from Belgium, Italy, Spain, the United States and the former Yugoslavia.^[6]

While the media has continued to report instances of weapons trafficking between Colombia and Venezuela, Landmine Monitor has not found any evidence of antipersonnel mine transfers.

Stockpiling and Destruction

In September 2002, Venezuela reported a stockpile of 22,136 antipersonnel mines. In May 2003, Venezuela reported a revised total of 46,135 antipersonnel mines, an increase of 23,999 mines.^[7] The stockpile reported in May 2003 consisted of antipersonnel mines manufactured in the former Yugoslavia (27,003 AM PMA3 mines), Spain (18,805 SB33), Belgium (253 M-35), and the United States (40 NMM-1401P, 32 M16-A1 and one M18-A1).^[8]

On 25 November 2003, Venezuela reported to the UN Secretary General that it completed destruction of a stockpile of 47,189 antipersonnel mines on 24 September 2003, days ahead of the country’s four-year deadline of 1 October 2003.^[9] It also stated that another 5,000 antipersonnel mines would be retained for training.

There is a difference of 6,054 mines between the number reported in the May 2003 Article 7 report and the number provided to the Secretary-General in September 2003. In August 2004, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs representative told Landmine Monitor that the Venezuelan government assumes that there were errors in information previously provided. He stated that 4,960 antipersonnel mines remain, of which 3,960 mines will be destroyed in El Pao, Cojedes state before October 2004 and 1,000 will be retained for training.^[10]

Landmine Monitor was not invited to witness any of the destruction events, despite several requests made to observe the destruction, and it does not appear that media or other observers were in attendance, or that Venezuela made any effort to inform States Parties at the time that it had met its treaty obligation.

It appears that the mines were destroyed in several events in the period from May to September 2003. On 15 May 2003, Venezuela announced that the destruction process was initiated on 7 May 2003 and would be completed by 22 May 2003.^[11] In June 2003, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Landmine Monitor that 35,360 mines were destroyed in the first phase from 7-14 May 2003, and destruction would continue until it was completed ahead of the treaty-mandated deadline.^[12] In August 2003, Venezuela reported that 35,947 antipersonnel mines had been destroyed to date.^[13]

Landmine Use

In its Article 7 reports, Venezuela reported that it had emplaced 1,036 antipersonnel mines at six naval posts around the country: Atabapo (PNFA), Cararabo (PNME), Guafitas (PNGUA), Isla Vapor (PNISVA), Puerto Páez (PNPP), and Río Arauca Internacional (PNRAI). In August 2004, Landmine Monitor was told by the government that there were errors in the information provided and that a total of 1,074 mines were emplaced.^[14]

According to the Article 7 reports, three minefields were laid at Guafitas in May 1998, which is five months after Venezuela signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997.^[15] In May 2002, Landmine Monitor visited the community of Guafitas, in Páez municipality, Apure state, where it verified the presence of a small minefield inside a Navy post on the Arauca River, on the Colombian border.^[16] The minefield, approximately five meters in width, was located around the perimeter of the Navy post and fenced with ten warning signs. A local resident told Landmine Monitor that the Navy post was established in 1997 and that he did not know of any incidents involving landmines.^[17] Venezuela’s September 2002 Article 7 report stated the three Guafitas minefields contained 58 SB-33 antipersonnel mines, while the May 2003 report cited 20. At a mine action seminar held in August 2003, Venezuela again reported 58 mines laid at Guafitas,^[18] and this number was confirmed by the government in August 2004.^[19]

According to the May 2003 Article 7 report, three minefields were laid at Atabapo in May 1995, containing 299 PMA-3 antipersonnel mines. In April 2003, Landmine Monitor visited the community of San Fernando de Atabapo in Atabapo municipality, Amazonas state, which lies on the Atabapo River bordering with Colombia. Landmine Monitor verified the presence of a minefield at Navy Post Atabapo (PNFA), some 30 meters from the nearest homes in the village. The minefield was fenced, but the warning signs were only seen from the inside of the post, and not by persons approaching from the outside.^[20] While Landmine Monitor was told that the local population was aware of the danger and that there had been no casualties, a Marine at the post said a few years before there had been an accident when a soldier was cutting bush (maleza). The officer in charge did not know the total number of mines emplaced, but indicated they were laid to prevent attacks from Colombian guerrillas. He added that a number of mines had been destroyed recently, but some could not be cleared because they had moved by natural causes and their exact location was not known.^[21]

Two minefields were laid at Puerto Páez in April 1995, containing 281 PMA-3 mines according to the May 2003 Article 7 report. Landmine Monitor visited Puerto Paéz, in Pedro Camejo municipality, Apure state in April 2004 and confirmed the presence of a minefield at the Navy post named “General José Antonio Páez.”^[22] The Navy post is located at the point where the Meta and Orinoco Rivers join, across the border from the Colombian town of Puerto Carreño (Vichada department). There are two small minefields in Puerto Paéz, which lie next to some ten inhabited houses. While people living nearby knew of the minefields, others in the town of 10,000 inhabitants did not.^[23] A local priest said he had found out about the minefields from a woman who had a “minefield” warning sign in her house that had been emplaced between her house and the Navy post, but had fallen down.^[24] Landmine Monitor saw only one sign, in an area with abundant vegetation to one side of the main entrance to the Navy Post. The head of the Navy post told Landmine Monitor that some of the signs may have fallen down.^[25] Military officials reported that the minefields are flooded by the river and that mines might have shifted location. Landmine Monitor was shown a new fence that had been put up to further separate the civilian population from the minefield. There are no known incidents involving civilians or military personnel at the Navy post.^[26]

At Cararabo in Apure state, three minefields laid in April 1995 contain 316 PMA-3 mines according to the May 2003 Article 7 report. The commander of the Puerto Páez Navy post told Landmine Monitor that the Cararabo Navy post was located in a difficult to access zone consisting of thick vegetation and while a few houses are located near the Navy post, there is no large community in the vicinity.^[27]

According to the May 2003 Article 7 report, the Isla Vapor location contains one minefield laid in March 1996 containing 43 PMA-3 mines. At a mine action seminar in August 2003, Venezuela reported different figures for Isla Vapor (PNISVA), indicating 127 mines instead of 43, and four mined areas instead of one.^[28] In August 2004, the government told Landmine Monitor that the Article 7 reports were correct, and the discrepancy was explained by the fact that 84 mines had been cleared since 1996.^[29]

The Rio Arauca Navy Post (Puesto Naval Río Arauca Internacional, PRAI) in Amazonas reportedly has one minefield containing 77 PMA-3 mines that was laid in May 1995.^[30]

While Colombian non-state actors are active in the border regions between Colombia and Venezuela, Landmine Monitor knows of no cases of peasants or landowners using mines along these areas. One media report, issued in December 2001, noted that guerrillas belonging to a Colombian group called the Latin American Popular Army (EPLA, Ejército Popular Latinoamericano) were using “explosive mines” to surround and protect their camps in Venezuelan territory, but Landmine Monitor has not been able to confirm this report.^[31]

Mine Action

The Mine Ban Treaty requires that Venezuela destroy all antipersonnel mines in mined areas as soon as possible, but no later than 1 October 2009. The mined areas at the six Naval posts were inspected and checked between April 2002 and April 2003, according to the May 2003 Article 7 report. Between April 2002 and January 2003, a Combat Engineering company of the Marines in Meseta de Mamo, Vargas state, engaged in training with metal detection equipment. There was also a coordination meeting with a French military attaché “with the purpose of presenting the requirements for the endowment of special equipment for the destruction of minefields.”

Venezuela was to begin clearance “operations” in February 2002, but this had not occurred by September 2004. In February 2003, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official told Landmine Monitor that the clearance delay was due to a lack of specialized equipment.^[32] In August 2003, Venezuela reported that minefield inspections were planned for August to December 2003 and assistance had been requested from France and Canada for the acquisition of needed clearance equipment. The Venezuelan representative noted that it was difficult to demine because the mined areas are “remote, difficult to access, sometimes only reachable by helicopter or unfinished roads,” and rainfall and thick vegetation can also restrict deminers.^[33]

Since 1996, Venezuela has contributed 32 military mine action supervisors to the MARMINCA mine clearance efforts by the OAS in Central America, including four in 2001 and four in 2002. In May 2003, the OAS reported that prior to January 2003 new military supervisors for MARMINCA from seven OAS member states including Venezuela received training and were integrated.^[34]

Landmine/UXO Casualties and Survivor Assistance

In August 2003, Venezuela acknowledged that a Marine injured by a landmine in Atabapo while cutting bush had received rehabilitation.^[35] It is not known when the incident occurred. There are no known civilian landmine survivors in Venezuela, including in the border region communities where Landmine Monitor has consulted with various groups. Animals have reportedly detonated mines after escaping from farms.^[36]

Two incidents involving unexploded ordnance were reported by the media. On 14 October 2003, a 25-year-old man was killed and a child injured after the man handled a grenade found on a military shooting range zone in Puerto Paéz while collecting aluminum to sell.^[37] The shooting range zone was well-known to the local population, but was not fenced-off. After the incident “military zone” signs were erected. On 26 February 2004, the media reported that a 32-year-old man and his two children aged seven and five were killed after a buried grenade exploded near the Infantry battalion “Rivas Dávila N° 222,” in Félix Sánchez Cánsales municipality, Trujillo state.^[38]

Venezuela has a national health system with specialized services located in main urban centers, including rehabilitation services.

[1] Telephone interview with Victor Manzanares, First Secretary for Security and Disarmament, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Venezuela, 4 February 2000.
[2] Interview with Farida Yamín, First Secretary, Directorate of Multilateral Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and with Admiral Alcibíades Paz, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Caracas, 20 August 2004.
[3] See Article 7 Report, 10 September 2002; Article 7 Report, 15 May 2003. For both reports, a single time period is not covered. The various forms are relevant for different time periods.
[4] Notes taken by Landmine Monitor (MAC) during the Standing Committee on Stockpile Destruction meeting, 12 February 2004; also, Meeting Report, Standing Committee on Stockpile Destruction, 12 February 2004, p. 2.
[5] Article 7 Report, Form H, 15 May 2003. In the past the US Department of Defense identified Venezuela as the producer of the MV-1 improvised fragmentation antipersonnel mine. In January 2002, Brigadier General José Esteban Godoy Peña told Landmine Monitor that Venezuela had not produced mines, and explained the MV-1 was a mine used by guerrillas in the 1960s, known as trampas caza bobos (“fool-catcher booby-traps”). See ORDATA online maic.jmu.edu/ordata/srdetaildesc.asp?ordid=2310, accessed on 11 October 2004.
[6] Article 7 Report, Form B, 15 May 2003.
[7] Ibid; Article 7 Report, Form B, 10 September 2002.
[8] Article 7 Report, Form B, 15 May 2003. The stockpile included one unspecified mine (lot LOP90E113-001).
[9] Letter from the Permanent Mission of Venezuela in Geneva to the UN Disarmament Conference Secretariat, 25 November 2003. The ICBL and a number of States Parties had attempted to get confirmation from Venezuela both before and after the 1 October 2003 deadline that Venezuela had met its obligation, but received no response.
[10] Interview with Farida Yamín and Adm. Alcibíades Paz, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 20 August 2004.
[11] Intervention by Venezuela, Standing Committee on Stockpile Destruction, Geneva, 15 May 2003 (Notes taken by Landmine Monitor/MAC).
[12] Letter from Alexandra París, Director of Multilateral Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, No. 0968, 3 June 2003.
[13] Presentation by Capt. Lino Poleo, Chief of the Evaluation Division of the Military Power, Directorate of Operations of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the National Armed Forces, Ministry of Defense, at the Regional Mine Action Seminar “En Camino hacia un Hemisferio Libre de Minas Antipersonal,” Lima, Perú, 14-15 August 2003. Available at maic.jmu.edu/conference/proceedings/2003Lima/summaries/venezuela.htm, accessed 11 October 2004.
[14] Interview with Farida Yamín and Adm. Alcibíades Paz, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 20 August 2004.
[15] The May 2003 Article 7 report indicates Venezuela laid 20 SB-33 antipersonnel mines in Guafita in May 1998. The September 2002 Article 7 report indicates the number was 58 SB-33 antipersonnel mines. See Article 7 Report, Form C, 15 May 2003 and Article 7 Report, Form C, 10 September 2002.
[16] See Landmine Monitor Report 2002, p. 520.
[17] Landmine Monitor field visit to Guafitas, Páez, Apure State, 31 May 2002.
[18] Presentation by Capt. Lino Poleo, Ministry of Defense, Lima Seminar, 14-15 August 2003.
[19] Interview with Farida Yamín and Adm. Alcibíades Paz, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 20 August 2004.
[20] Ibid; Landmine Monitor field visit to San Fernando de Atabapo, Atabapo, Amazonas state, 18 April 2003.
[21] Interview with Lt. Frankbel Campos Velásquez, at the Af. Clemente Maldonado Navy Post, San Fernando de Atabapo, Atabapo, Amazonas State, 18 April 2003.
[22] Landmine Monitor field visit to Puerto Paéz, Pedro Camejo, Apure state, 17 April 2004.
[23] Landmine Monitor informally interviewed 15 locals who did not know of the minefield.
[24] Interview with Priest Otto Benaventa, Puerto Paéz, 17 April 2004.
[25] Interview with Lt. Rafael Acosta Arévalo, Puerto Paéz, 17 April 2004.
[26] Ibid; Interview with Lt. Col. Ambrosio Luis Ramos Cairos, Commander of the “Julián Mellado” Cavalry Group, Puerto Paéz, 17 April 2004.
[27] Interview with Lt. Rafael Acosta Arévalo, Commander of the Navy Post, Puerto Paéz, 17 April 2004.
[28] Presentation by Capt. Lino Poleo, Ministry of Defense, Lima Seminar, 14-15 August 2003.
[29] Interview with Farida Yamín and Adm. Alcibíades Paz, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 20 August 2004.
[30] Article 7 Report, Form C, 15 May 2003.
[31] See Landmine Monitor Report 2002, p. 520.
[32] See Landmine Monitor Report 2003, p. 494.
[33] Presentation by Capt. Lino Poleo, Ministry of Defense, Lima Seminar, 14-15 August 2003.
[34] OAS, “Update on Regional Mine Action Efforts,” May 2003, p. 2.
[35] Presentation by Capt. Lino Poleo, Ministry of Defense, Lima Seminar, 14-15 August 2003. See also Interview with Marine, Af. Clemente Maldonado Navy Post, San Fernando de Atabapo, Atabapo, Amazonas State, 18 April 2003.
[36] Presentation by Capt. Lino Poleo, Ministry of Defense, Lima Seminar, 14-15 August 2003.
[37] Landmine Monitor interview with the widow of the 25-year-old man, Puerto Paéz, 17 April 2004.
[38] Últimas Noticias, 26 February 2004, p. 16.