Home » Health » The Venezuelan Mining Arc: Environmental Abuse, Criminality, and the Threat to Protected Areas

The Venezuelan Mining Arc: Environmental Abuse, Criminality, and the Threat to Protected Areas

The Venezuelan mining arc is a territory of approximately 111,843 square kilometers that mainly occupies the states of Bolívar, Amazona and Delta Amacuro, this area is currently known to be the center of illegal mining.

According to the United Nations, the extraction of minerals such as gold, copper, diamond and coltan they have no environmental or social regulation and the workers are victims of serious abuses and acts of violence.

According to the non-governmental organization SOS Onírico, for 20 years both Hugo Chávez at the time and Nicolás Maduro today, They have only seen this region as a source of income where organized crime actors such as the FARC and the National Liberation Army are present. for example with the endorsement of the Venezuelan regime.

The mining arc represents an extensive area in Venezuela, to have an idea of ​​the dimension of this area, the mining arc is much larger than the Island of Cuba, Guatemala and larger than Portugal.

About the topic, Cristina Vollmer Burelli, Executive Director of the SOS Orinoco Organizationan NGO that helps save the region and the Amazon in Venezuela and that was founded to show what happens there, spoke on the NTN24 program La Tarde.

Regarding the damage that occurs in this area, Vollmer stated that “it is enormous” for two reasons: “first because of the extension of the area, the Mining Arc that was illegally decreed in 2016, illegal because it was not approved by the Legitimate National Assembly nor were studies carried out, it has one hundred and twelve thousand square kilometers, it is 12% of the national territory, it is bigger than Portugal, it is almost a country within a country”.

Secondly, the director of SOS Orinoco urged that “the regime always wanted it to be thought that the mining arc was the area where this mining was going to be done, but in reality this type of criminal chaotic disorganized mining goes beyond the area geographically determined by what is the mining arc”.

The main problem is that the entire area of ​​the Arco Minero is bordering national parks, protected areas and indigenous territories, If you are next to that area and the way to do mining is chaotic and criminal, that mining gets into those protected areas and the criminals that are doing the mining do not respect the areas,” he said.

2023-07-03 23:54:02
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