Oro Rojo: Between Blood and Hope is a historical-legal essay with a strong narrative pulse that revisits Venezuela’s origins—from Christopher Columbus’s voyages and the encounter with Indigenous peoples to the decisions of the Catholic Monarchs and Pope Alexander VI that shaped the legal status of these lands. Drawing on chronicles, maps, and legal texts, Miguel Dempere explains how Indigenous communities were recognized as subjects of the Crown and as legitimate owners of their property, including gold obtained through exchange.
The book moves through pivotal episodes—Hispaniola, the “discovery” of Venezuela, the origin of the country’s name, and the mestizo figure of Francisco Fajardo—to show why Venezuelan history followed a distinctive path within the broader Hispanic American world. In its final section, it connects past and present by examining the 1961 and 1999 Constitutions, the oil booms, and today’s context of sanctions and instability, and it advances a “Humanitarian Constitution” aimed at securing a real, enforceable right for every Venezuelan to share in the benefits of gold, oil, and other strategic resources, prioritizing the most vulnerable families. Written for scholars and general readers alike, it offers a nonpartisan view of the relationship between history, law, and social justice in Venezuela.