VENEZUELA'S MADURO GOVERNMENT CIRCUMVENTS CONTITUTION BY ALLOWING MINING ON INDIGENOUS LAND [View all]

[Oele]

Gold and Grief in Venezuela’s Violent South

Across swathes of southern Venezuela, army units, Colombian guerrillas and crime syndicates jostle for control over gold mines funnelling hard currency to President Nicolás Maduro’s government. Outside powers should stop considering military intervention and instead help broker a peaceful transition in Venezuela, lest chaos ensue.

What’s new? Venezuelan crime syndicates and Colombian guerrilla groups are creating new threats across southern Venezuela as they compete for control of the region’s valuable mineral resources. Tensions and violence have spiked in recent months, and could worsen in the midst of Venezuela’s presidential crisis.

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Boosting the mining industry in Venezuela’s southern regions was problematic from the outset. Maduro signed the Mining Arc decree without consultation with or approval by the opposition-controlled National Assembly, as required under the Constitution. Indeed the Assembly voted to repeal the decree in June 2016, on the grounds that it had not been consulted, and argued that the 112,000 square kilometre mining zone overlaps with several protected areas such as forest reserves and national parks, including a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Canaima National Park. Nor did the government carry out obligatory socio-environmental impact studies or consult with indigenous communities beforehand, in accordance with Venezuela’s constitution.

More: https://www.crisisgroup.org/latin-america-caribbean/andes/venezuela/073-gold-and-grief-venezuelas-violent-south

Editorials and other articles:
https://www.google.com/search?q=venezuela+mining+on+indigenous+land&oq=venezuela+mining+on+indigenous+land