MIAMI.– The tragedy in the illegal gold mine “Bulla Loca” in Venezuelawhich left more than 20 dead and boarded-up miners, can be repeated in the extensive area of irregular exploitation of precious minerals, adjacent to the south coast of the river Orinocoknown as Arco Minero, which promotes and protects the regime of Nicolás Maduro, warns the NGO SOS Orinoco.
The organization, made up of environmental experts, indicated in a statement that by identifying the location of the mine where the collapse occurred, maps and images confirmed “the accelerated expansion of this mine, which has grown by 80 hectares in 10 months.” , and others in the area, where similar accidents could occur.”
“The ecocidal and criminal extractivist model promoted by the Venezuelan State with the support of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) continues to claim lives, in addition to destroying the most important rivers in Venezuela. This time the human and environmental tragedy occurred in the La Paragua River basin, a short distance from the Guaiquinima Natural Monument and the Caura National Park, within the Southern Protective Zone of the Bolívar State and the La Paragua Forest Reserve.
The collapse of the illegal mine occurred on February 21 in the afternoon, when dozens of miners were working in the deep quarry and an avalanche of earth suddenly covered several of the workers with its thickness. Some 25 died and another still undetermined number was buried, while others managed to jump in terror, according to the preliminary balance released by the authorities.
This Thursday, the mayor of the municipality of Angostura, Yorgi Arciniega, reported to the media a balance of 30 dead miners and 100 people, in the area that is difficult to access, as he stated.
No regime authority, so far, has given any statement.
Risks in Arco Minero, repeated warning
The SOS organization has repeatedly warned, through numerous and well-founded reports, of the risks of illegal mining and especially of the increase that “has been promoted by the Venezuelan government, through a national extractivist policy, known as the Mining Arc. of the Orinoco, an area heavily guarded by the military and irregular armed groups, such as the ELN.
The Mining Arc is a project initiated by Hugo Chávez, during his mandate, and approved “unconstitutionally” in 2016, which covers an immense extension of Venezuelan territory, some 111,843 square kilometers, adjacent to the southern coast of the Orinoco River and which is the “mark” of a policy of total openness to mining in general, but whose main objective is the extraction of gold, coltan, diamonds, and minerals known as “rare earths” (rare earth materials).
“This policy has the appearance of having a delimited geographical framework, but in reality it seeks to overflow to adjacent regions, which according to official maps would not be within the Mining Arc, as is the case of Canaima National Park, Caura National Park, Reserve of Alto Orinoco Biosphere, among other protected areas and which has given rise to a gold rush throughout the southern Orinoco. The most atrocious case is that of the Yapacana national park, which until recently, and for more than 20 years, was invaded by more than 10 thousand miners,” SOS Orinoco experts warned.
Faced with the illegal mining activity that is growing without control in all the Protected Areas south of the Orinoco, the organization affirms that “it is evident that there is no interest on the part of the official environmental authority, which has proven to be absolutely incapable of responding effectively to this problem.”
And he highlighted that in recent years the presence of groups that appear as unions, mining mafias, and Colombian guerrillas has increased violence, all of it related in one way or another to mining.
Source: With information from SOS Orinoco, Diario Las Americas, CNN
