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