The “Multicultural Invisibility” of Afro-Venezuelans and their Alternative Legal Politics to Fight Racial Discrimination and Acquire Ethno-racial Recognition: The “Cine Citta” Case

• In Event: Ethnic rights: the struggle for identity politics and self-determination

Abstract

The multicultural turn in Venezuela came about with the adoption of the 1999 Bolivarian constitution, which recognizes in general terms in its Preamble the pluricultural and multiethnic character of the nation. Indigenous movements achieved constitutional recognition of their rights with the inclusion of Chapter VIII “Rights of Native People”, while Afro-Venezuelan demands for ethno-racial recognition have been ignored by the constituent assembly—and therefore by the Bolivarian state—in the writing of the Constitution.
Frustrated by their exclusion, Afrodescendant organizations opted to engage on an anti-discrimination legal route by supporting the creation of the Organic Law Against Racial Discrimination (LOCDRA), which was finally adopted in 2011. This law opened up an alternative legal avenue for Afro-Venezuelans to make their demands visible, even if only and exclusively by assuming the category of subjects “racially discriminated against, marginalized or vulnerable.” .The implementation of the law by the National Institute Against Racial Discrimination (INCODIR) has tended to focus exclusively on preventive practices. The only case currently processed by the Prosecutor’s Office is the complaint interposed by INCODIR against the Marketing Company 1107, C.A, known as “Cine Citta Caracas.” This upmarket ice-cream restaurant requested—through an Internet job search engine—employees with specific phenotypic characteristics: “white skin” and “a minimum height of 1.70 m.”
This paper examines the socio-political factors that explain both the low rate of complaints and the institutional and ideological criteria that limit the substantiation of cases, the definition of crimes and the scope of the justice system’s operators’ interpretation and decision-making processes.

Authors

• Dayana Victoria Rivas Brito, Independent Scholar

• Krisna Ruette-Orihuela, Loughborough University