The NGO SOS Orinoco released a statement that points out that the Venezuelan Amazon continues to be affected by the activities of illegal miners, despite the propaganda of the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro, which claims that major actions to combat this crime are being carried out in the region.
Last year, General Domingo Hernández Larez, operational chief of the Venezuelan Armed Forces, launched Operation Autana, with the alleged aim of closing down illegal mines in the Yapacana National Park.
According to the Venezuelan NGO, in messages on social networks, Larez reported that in these actions several mining camps were closed and equipment was confiscated, and more than 10,000 miners, including Colombian guerrillas, were expelled.
However, SOS Orinoco said that, despite several requests made by the NGO, the military did not provide georeferenced locations of the destroyed mines or conclusive evidence of the cessation of mining on Cerro de Yapacana until 25 August.
At the same time, SOS Orinoco identified through georeferencing 3,316 hectares of illegal mines within the Yapacana National Park, and satellite images confirmed that there are still large areas where these operations are still active.
“Thousands of miners continue to operate in Yapacana, now, as we learned, under full control of the Venezuelan Armed Forces, and in some sectors the Armed Forces allow indigenous peoples to continue illegal mining,” said the NGO.
SOS Orinoco reported that it has received no information about the reaction of illegal armed groups, and “the destruction of a few camps and equipment raises suspicions of a possible pact between the guerrillas and the Venezuelan army to create the illusion of success while mining persists through alternative means”.
In February 2016, the dictator Nicolás Maduro launched the Arco Mineiro do Orinoco (AMO) project in the Venezuelan Amazon, where the extraction of gold, copper, diamonds and bauxite, among other minerals, is being stimulated.
Ironically, the dictator claimed at the time that the objectives were, in addition to generating wealth for the weakened Venezuelan economy, to promote environmental conservation and “defeat the mafias that exploit and enslave mining communities”.
However, according to NGOs, the project accelerated environmental devastation, crime and human rights violations in the Venezuelan Amazon.
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