ALIENATED TARGETS MILITARY DISCOURSE AND THE DISEMPOWERMENT OF INDIGENOUS AMAZONIAN PEOPLES IN VENEZUELA

In June through August of 1984, a dispute over land tenure between the Piaroa, an indigenous Amazonian people, and a wealthy Venezuelan colo nist escalated from a local conflict into a national controversy over military security and its alleged absence in the Federal Amazon Territ ory. In the process, high-ranking government officials and members of the economic elite accused the supporters of Piaroa land rights of par ticipating in an international conspiracy to dismember Venezuelan nati onal sovereignty. These specific processes of disempowerment are not i solated phenomena but part of a long-term historical process of nation -state formation in Venezuela that has, in turn, become enmeshed in a broader, hemispheric process of military discourse. Indigenous peoples , organizations and scholars including anthropologists who advocate in digenous rights, and a variety of reformist groups in Latin America ha ve been transformed into alienated targets.