Venezuelas Amazon Forest Illegal Mining

for many in the international community

and indeed in the global environmental

community

it’s probably surprising to hear that my

home country venezuela

is one of the top 10 mega biodiverse

countries

in the world that’s right alongside

brazil

but it’s also highly mineral rich and

it’s suffering

probably the worst environmental crisis

in the western hemisphere

the highest deforestation rate in the

americas and amazonia

and many of you have probably not even

heard or read about this in the media or

from other environmentalists if a

picture

is worth a thousand words then a video

is probably worth a million

so i want to start this presentation

with a short clip

by the lord vogerstein of a flight

over angel falls in canaima world

heritage site

in venezuelan amazonia

the orinoco river basin is located in

amazonia and the guyana shield

a pre-cambrian geological formation one

of the last relics of the earliest part

of the world’s history

what makes venezuela’s amazonian region

unique within panamazonia

is not its size but the fact that it

comprises lowland

tropical forests and a wide range

of ecosystems along an elevational

gradient

of up to 3 000 meters that’s about 10

000 feet

above sea level and this is what it

makes so

it makes it so biodiverse one of the

jewels in the crown

of venezuela’s amazonian region is

ganaima national park

the land of the lost worlds widely

celebrated as one of the most stunning

landscapes

on the planet home to the world’s

highest

waterfall angel falls which is seeing

now on the screen

and because of this uniqueness it was

declared a world heritage site

in 1994.

sadly the collapse of the of venezuela’s

oil-based

economy has pushed the regime of nicolas

maluro to seek

new sources of revenue it has turned to

plundering

the country’s vast mineral wealth and

and selling them as contraband to

international buyers

this illegal trade threatens to destroy

one of the world’s most biodiverse areas

and decimate the region’s indigenous

populations

in february 2016 without the approval of

the democratically elected national

assembly malura decreed that a section

of the amazon covering

12 of venezuela’s territory would become

a mining

development zone the area on this map

outlined in red is the so-called

argominero or orinoco mining arc

it contains various reserves of coltan

iron bauxite diamonds and gold

at 42 800 square miles

it covers an area bigger than portugal

maduro’s signature mining gamble gives

the outward appearance

of having a well-delimited geographical

scope

but in reality its intent has spread out

into areas not defined

as being inside the oriental mining arc

this includes pristine national parks

including ganaima world heritage site

it has given rise to a gold rush

throughout the entire region

south of the oregano river throughout

the states of bolivar and amazonas

and now even in parts of northern

venezuela

the regime has effectively signaled that

indiscriminate mining has been given

priority

over the preservation of the extremely

delicate environment

found in venezuela

throughout the 20th century prior to the

arrival of chavez venezuela

had probably the most conservationist

policy for its amazonian region

in all of latin america various

governments

throughout the 20th century created laws

that protected

vast areas of pristine forests south of

the oreonocal river

indigenous peoples ancestral territories

were protected

numerous protected areas were created

between 1962 and 1993

and all mining was made illegal in the

state of amazonas

most importantly it protected its fresh

water sources

venezuela is in the top 20 countries

in the world for renewable water

resources

very few people know this as well and it

provides close to

70 percent of venezuela’s hydroelectric

power

venezuelan amazonia and guayana region

comprise

29 protected areas eight national parks

19 natural monuments and two biosphere

reserves

now this doesn’t mean that there was no

illegal mining nor that there were

foreign miners such as brazilian guiding

fedors

exploiting mines illegally but it was

minimal compared to what we’re seeing

today

i’m now going to talk about a few of the

most emblematic areas that are being

devastated by maduro’s

criminal mining policy

the explosion of illegal gold mining in

and around ganaima

unesco world heritage site in the state

of bolivia is without doubt

the most scandalous example this is the

violation

of venezuela’s most emblematic national

park

home to angel falls and many other

remarkable

tabletop mountains known as the boys

such as roraima

just a few miles away from angel falls

and the scenes you saw in this video at

the beginning of my presentation

illegal mining is eating away at the

forests

and poisoning rivers with sedimentation

and mercury sos orinoco has been

studying the situation in ganima and

reporting on a regular basis to unesco

and iucn at last count in july 2020

there were 59 illegal mining clusters

each containing dozens of mines in and

around

the world heritage site you can see

these

on the slide with the little dots

marked on the map this part is also the

ancestral home

of the bemoan indigenous people many of

whom have been

forced to abandon their traditional

activities and tourism

to go to work in illegal gold mines in

order to survive

and many have become the victims of

criminal mafias and the colombian eln

gorilla sos orinoco did an evaluation of

the scope of mercury contamination

and an estimated 70 percent of the

carony river which is the eastern border

of the park

may well be polluted with mercury

the second area i’d like to draw your

attention to is the state of amazonas

and in particular to two areas within

this state

the first is yapagana national park

close to the colombian border

it has become a farc fiefdom where

dissident farc

lured over this previously uninhabited

national park

now home to two to three thousand

illegal miners

the colombian gorillas control all the

illegal gold mines

and provide all types of services to the

miners

in this slide you can see the scarring

of the amazonian forest with

illegal mines around and on top

of yapagana mountain yapakana has become

a financial and logistical center for

the farc

as well as their main entry point to all

of southern venezuela drug money is

laundered through gold mining

and every gram of gold illegally

produced

enriches the coffers of the colombian

gorilla

which by the way is granted safe passage

and haven by the maudo regime

so as long as the farc have unfettered

access to yapagana

colombia and the broader region will be

under growing threat

of their terrorist activities the second

area in amazonas that i’d like to focus

on

is the upper orinoco region

which is a biosphere reserve where

illegal mining by brazilian garden bedos

and farc dissidents

is expanding rapidly the presence of

both gunning beetles

and farc is threatening the existence of

the yanomami indigenous people

but it’s also a security threat to the

neighborhood because the farc

are demonstrably in alliance with the

invading brazilian miners

venezuelan armed forces also profit by

providing logistical and air support

with helicopters

that incredibly transport fuel

machinery etc into the mines some of

which are on top of the te buoys

within la neuvelina national park that

at 3 000 meters

has the highest peak elevation of

all the amazon region

at this very moment just yesterday i

received a message

from a yanomami leader informing me that

there are over

500 illegal brazilian miners

in hashimoto this is a region in the

biosphere reserve

and there is a huge risk of the covet

pandemic exploding in all of this area

threatening the yanomani and the iguana

people

all medical facilities except for one

have closed down

in this vast area these three very large

areas of illegal gold mining are mere

examples of what is happening all over

southern venezuela illegal mining and

smuggling

has become a lifeline for the regime

which has put the military in charge of

management

of illegal mining they man checkpoints

control access to the mines they manage

the flow of gasoline used for equipment

and they extort

tribute from workers and criminal groups

all other groups operating in the area

including criminal syndicates

the revolutionary armed forces of

colombia farc

and colombia’s national liberation uh

army eln

are in connivance with the military

so we’re witnessing an intensification

and expansion

of mining operations by state and

non-state actress

that are being shielded by the

government and recur to violence

24 7.

this mining policy promotes violence

slave labor child labor prostitution and

a

deeply troubling dismantling of

indigenous social structures with

countless silent

and not so silent killings of indigenous

and non-indigenous people

it’s also responsible for the explosion

of a malaria epidemic

that is spreading to the rest of

venezuela and now neighboring countries

close to 450 000 new cases of malaria

were recorded in 2019 for a total of

almost nine hundred thousand cases

ninety percent of which are south of the

oriental and guess where

in the illegal gold lines

on july 15 of this year the un

office of human rights accused the

venezuelan military of failing to

prevent

crimes against minors in the country’s

south

including extortion amputations and life

burials

the report shines a light on a topic

that has received

limited media attention illegal mining

in the venezuelan amazon is fueling

rampant

human and environmental abuses

venezuela’s mining industry has become

an activity that is imbued

in a vast organized crime scheme that

reaches

all levels of venezuela’s political

and military power structure top

government officials are being rewarded

and loyalties

bought by the regime that is parceling

out

access to this vast wealth

we started with breathtaking images of

venezuelan amazonia

and sadly i’d like to conclude this

presentation with this horrifying photo

of illegal mines on the kairone river

which borders ganaima world heritage

site

it’s critical to point out that the

speed at which this tragedy is evolving

will surely define

a future transition the governability of

that transition and the nature of

venezuela

as a nation-state for years to come

the emerging threats to security in

venezuela and surrounding countries

cannot be analyzed or understood

without considering the role of its vast

minerals and its fragile environment so

what can you do

well for starters you can demand to know

the origin of gold

and minerals used in jewelry and devices

such as your phone your

watch computers and all these

things that you buy and that you use

every day

and just make sure and ask whether blood

gold and blood coltan from venezuela

is being used the international

community needs to increase

the tracking of these high-value

resources and the networks that traffic

them in

international markets in order to

minimize the potential

for these resources to finance lasting

conflict

in the in venezuela and the neighborhood

we cannot allow

that the fight for mineral wealth that

has decimated

so many african countries to take hold

in the middle of the western hemisphere

thank you