Venezuela
Mine Ban Policy
Policy
The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified it on 14 April 1999. It became a State Party on 1 October 1999.
Venezuela has not adopted national implementation legislation stipulating penal sanctions for treaty violations, maintaining that domestic legislation to implement the Mine Ban Treaty is not necessary because international treaties ratified by the government automatically become national law.[1] On 21 September 2009, the Ministry of People’s Power for Defense issued Resolution 012281, creating a demining committee within the National Armed Forces.[2]
Venezuela has frequently attended meetings of the treaty, including the Third Review Conference in Maputo in June 2014, and more recently the Eighteenth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in November 2020 and the intersessional meetings in Geneva in June 2021. At both meetings, it made statements on sustainable development in mine action and survivor assistance.
Venezuela last submitted an updated Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 transparency report in 2012.
Venezuela is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and its Amended Protocol II on landmines. It is not party to CCW Protocol V on explosive remnants of war (ERW), nor is it party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
Use
Colombian non-state armed group (NSAG) the National Liberation Army (Unión Camilista-Ejército de Liberación Nacional, ELN)—which is a known producer and user of antipersonnel landmines—appears to maintain a presence in Venezuela. Several factions made up of dissidents from the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia–People's Army (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia–Ejército del Pueblo, FARC–EP) are also present in Venezuela.[3]
Venezuela reported that it had laid 1,074 antipersonnel mines around six naval bases between April 1995 and March 1997, one of which was subsequently accidentally detonated.[4] In 2007, Venezuela made statements indicating that it was still making active use of these emplaced antipersonnel mines, which is inconsistent with the ban on use outlined in Article 1 of the Mine Ban Treaty.[5] In 2007 and 2008, the ICBL repeatedly stated its concern that Venezuela was purposefully keeping these antipersonnel mines in place in order to derive military benefit from them; and was not, as required by the treaty, clearing them as soon as possible.[6] Venezuela announced in May 2013 that it had completed clearance of these areas.[7]
Production, transfer, stockpiling, and destruction
Venezuela has stated that it has not produced antipersonnel mines.[8] It is not known to have exported antipersonnel mines. Venezuela previously obtained antipersonnel mines manufactured by Belgium, Italy, Spain, the United States, and the former Yugoslavia.[9]
Venezuela completed destruction of its stockpile of 47,189 antipersonnel mines on 24 September 2003.[10] It has never specified the types of antipersonnel mines that were destroyed.[11]
Venezuela stated in 2012 that it is retaining 4,874 PMA-3 antipersonnel mines, held by the Ministry of Defense, for training and development purposes.[12] Venezuela has not since provided an update on the number of mines retained.
[1] Venezuela restated this view forcefully during the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in June 2008, in response to an International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) presentation on Article 9 (National Implementation Measures). Venezuela stated that all ratified international treaties are of the highest domestic legal standing—that of the constitution. The ICRC replied that a specific law was still desirable for various Mine Ban Treaty provisions, such as the Article 3 exception for retained mines, and Article 8 provisions on fact-finding missions. Statement of Venezuela, Standing Committee on the General Status and Operation of the Mine Ban Treaty, Geneva, 6 June 2008. Notes by the Monitor.
[2] Venezuela Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report (for calendar year 2009), Form A. See, Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Database.
[3] ‘‘Disidencias de las Farc en Venezuela: ¿un problema intermitente permanente?’’ (‘‘FARC dissidents in Venezuela: an intermittent or permanent problem?’’), El Espectador, 16 April 2021.
[4] Venezuela Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report (for calendar year 2007), Form I. See, Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Database; and email from Yaneth Arocha, First Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 28 June 2005. The 1,073 figure (1,074 minus the accidental detonation) is the figure reported in the Article 7 reports submitted in 2008, 2007, 2006, and 2005, which was a revised total from the figure of 1,036 used in the report submitted in 2003. Venezuela has reported different dates of emplacement in Article 7 reports. Most notably, Venezuela reported mines were last laid in March 1997 in its Article 7 report submitted on 26 April 2006, while the Article 7 report submitted on 1 May 2003 reports that mines were last laid in May 1998, the latter date being five months after Venezuela signed the Mine Ban Treaty.
[5] For more details, see ICBL, Landmine Monitor Report 2008: Toward a Mine-Free World (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, October 2008), pp. 740–741.
[6] Statement of ICBL, Standing Committee on the General Status and Operation of the Mine Ban Treaty, Geneva, 27 April 2007. The ICBL repeated these concerns in a letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, dated 18 July 2007, in statements at the Eighth Meeting of States Parties on 18 and 22 November 2007, and in several meetings with Venezuelan officials in 2007.
[7] Statement of the Netherlands, Mine Ban Treaty Thirteenth Meeting of States Parties, Geneva, 4 December 2013.
[8] Venezuela Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report (for calendar year 2007), Form H. See, Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Database. See also, previous Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 reports submitted by Venezuela.
[9] Venezuela Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report (for calendar year 2002), Form B. See, Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Database.
[10] Letter from the Permanent Mission of Venezuela to the UN in Geneva, and to the UN Conference on Disarmament Secretariat, 25 November 2003. The 47,189 mines were more than previously reported as held in stock. In September 2002, Venezuela reported a stockpile of 22,136 antipersonnel mines, but in May 2003 reported a revised total of 46,136 antipersonnel mines. See, Venezuela Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report (for calendar year 2002), Form B; and Venezuela Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report (for calendar year 2001), Form B. See, Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Database.
[11] Form B of Venezuela’s Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report submitted on 1 May 2003 listed the types and quantities for 46,136 mines still held in stock. See, Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Database.
[12] Venezuela Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report (for calendar year 2011), Form D. See, Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Database.