Entre los marcos jurídicos y las cartografías indígenas

Abstract

This paper explores the political dimension of indigenous territorial demands and the process of land demarcation and indigenous cartographies in relation to national legal frameworks and the notion of national sovereignty in Venezuela. First, we will present a general context of territorial struggle strategies carried out by indigenous people in defense of Pachamama in Latin America. Then, we will disclose the legal frameworks and how the concepts on indigenous peoples, indigenous communities, indigenous lands and indigenous habitats, acknowledged in the Organic Law of Indigenous Peoples and Communities (LOPCI 2005) in Venezuela, do not violate the notion of national sovereignty. Furthermore, we will suggest that indigenous mappings, as requirements to make the formal request for land demarcation to the state, reflect an intercultural spatial vision that takes into account both indigenous territorial perceptions and the geopolitical dimension of the Venezuelan nation. Indigenous participatory mappings are objects of socio-historical production that reflect both the heritage and aesthetic sense of local knowledge about space and territory as a more political sense of the idea of nation.

Keywords

• indigenous cartographies
• land demarcation
• legal frames
• indigenous peoples and communities
• national sovereignty
• Venezuela