State Healthcare and Yanomami Transformations: A Symmetrical Ethnography

8. Two Meetings and a Protest

164 chapter eight Two Meetings and a Protest In this chapter I take a step back, zoom out, so to speak, in order to analyze direct encounters between Yanomami and state representatives. I concentrate on occasions where health issues were prominent: a protest in La Esmeralda held in 2001; the first and only “Yanomami conference,” held in the Mavaca cluster also in 2001; and a meeting with national health authorities that also took place in La Esmeralda in 2004. These events move us from the everyday relations between doctors and Yanomami into the explicitly political realm, an analytical passage from interpersonal to collective Yanomami-criollo relations . Each event has been selected for a combination of historical and analytically relevant reasons. In this discussion, I nonetheless, return to issues we have encountered in previous chapters—Yanomami differentiating performances , napë potential affinity, mutual misunderstandings—to illuminate the continuities with the quotidian as well as the complementary relation of events along the river network between upriver Yanomami communities and downriver centers of political activity. These ethnographic examples will also serve to critique some of the current anthropological analysis of interethnic or identity politics. The final section hopes to demonstrate the relevance of our discussion thus far in the production of health policies for Amerindians. A Yanomami Protest, La Esmeralda, 2001 In April 2001 a group of Yanomami protested on the occasion of the second presidential visit to La Esmeralda. Together with a number of boats Two Meetings and a Protest • 165 and motors, six “fluvial ambulances” in La Esmeralda were waiting to be donated by the National Guard’s social program, Plan Casiquiare 2000. The ambulances and boats were a response to petitions Yanomami had made to President Chávez during his first visit the year before. Official deliveries were part of his visit’s agenda. Each ambulance was identified with a specific community’s name inscribed along its side: three of these read Ocamo, Mavaca, and Platanal. For some time, local health authorities had complained to the National Guard about the technical inadequacies of the ambulances—inappropriate for river travel, medically unequipped, motors too large for the shallow waters of the dry season, high fuel consumption , etc. Nevertheless, the ambulances were dispatched to La Esmeralda for distribution. The day before the event and after crowds of Yanomami had noticed them, however, the boats, acknowledged to be inappropriate, were reassigned and renamed for other towns in Amazonas. This sudden change, which occurred without consulting the Yanomami, instigated their subsequent protest. Let me summarize the events that followed. The day before the president ’s arrival, some Yanomami leaders persuaded a large number of Yanomami to prepare a document for the president voicing their disapproval of the ambulance incident. Most Yanomami were in a provisional camp, lodging together under a single large roof. The next day, they remained in this area while the rest of La Esmeralda residents gathered in a crowd at the end of the airstrip about half a mile away, where the official reception activities and the president’s weekly radio program were held. The Yanomami deliberately remained at a distance to highlight their distinctness. In their shelter, they prepared to make an impact, gathering arrows and improvised clubs, and painting themselves black with charcoal. A handful in a coordinating role remained in criollo clothing, but most emulated warriors. Allowing the warriors to maintain their status as a visibly distinct group, other Yanomami joined the crowd fully dressed. They paraded down the road leading to the stage where Chávez was addressing the crowd. Not far from there, military personnel intercepted the chanting crowd of blackstriped , arrow-wielding Yanomami. As more military personnel, a few journalists, and others arrived at the scene, the protest quieted down and negotiations began. The head of district, attempting to explain the reasons for changing the boats’ names, was vigorously dismissed by the Yanomami: “Don’t let him speak!” “Get him out of here!” Next, senior military officers of Plan Casiquiare and the Presidential Guard (Sp. Casa Militar) attempted to spell out the problems, adding that they would buy them more adequate boats. One Yanomami 166 • Chapter 8 leader responded: “We requested [the ambulances]. We suffer here for our people . . . We cannot accept more deceit . . . Now the Yanomami region is in need. First you have to be concerned.” “Now I will explain why [we made this decision],” intervened one military official, repeating the arguments. Then...