In the Yapacana National Park, located in Amazonas, 8,000 mining camps have been registered, including on top of the tepuy. “This environmental damage to ancestral lands and diversity is irreversible,” it was noted.
A commission of indigenous peoples of Amazon demanded the Ombudsman, Alfredo Ruíz, to explain the actions his office has taken to denounce illegal mining in that state and the destruction of the environment in national parks and other protected areas.
A group of indigenous people traveled to Caracas to deliver a new communication to the Ombudsman, who has not responded to petitions submitted two months ago. In the writingsigned by 39 organizations and more than 30 spokespersons for indigenous peoples, expressed their concern about illegal mining and the environmental repercussions in the seven municipalities of the state of Amazonas, especially in the Yapacana National Park.
“We ask that criminal, civil, administrative and disciplinary responsibility be established for persons invested or not with authority for actions and omissions tolerated in the aforementioned sites (Yapacana National Park), to the detriment of the human rights of all citizens, especially of the indigenous peoples and communities that inhabit the affected areas.
According to estimates by various NGOs, illegal mining and the Orinoco Mining Arc project have devastated 51,286 hectares. They have identified 680 active mines in the Guayana region, at least 59 of them located within the Canaima National Park.
In the Yapacana National Park, 8,000 mining camps have been registered, including on top of the tepuy. “This environmental damage to ancestral lands and diversity is irreversible,” he noted.
*Read also: FAN says it destroyed illegal mining camp in Yapacana National Park
In addition to illegal mining and extractivist activities in these areas, NGOs and indigenous spokespersons denounced that drug trafficking, fuel and resource smuggling, transculturation, and violation of the rights and spaces belonging to indigenous peoples, trafficking in people, homicides, forced disappearances, prostitution, robberies, presence of children and adolescents in places of armed groups, diseases, malnutrition, contamination, among others.
“All these aspects are closely linked to the phenomenon of illegal mining, which is why immediate actions are required to put an end to these irregular situations,” they said.
“Deep concern about illegal mining and its repercussions in the 7 municipalities of the Amazonas State, especially the Yapacana National Park”
Group of defenders of Amazonas made up of indigenous people, environmental and human rights activists deliver today #9Jun Letter to the Ombudsman of… pic.twitter.com/tsEYGo3yjb
— PROVE (@_Provea) June 9, 2023
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