Ingreso_al_Banco_Central_de_Venezuela_de_749_kilogramos_de_oro_provenientes_del_Arco_Minero_del_Orinoco_el_18_de_noviembre_de_2017

The Orinoco Mining Arc (OMA), is a resource-rich area in Venezuela that has become a hub for illegal mining. It was opened to development in February 2016 as the "Orinoco Mining Arc National Strategic Development Zone", and has been operating since 2017; The Orinoco Mining Arc covers 12.2% of Venezuelan territory with an area of 111,843 km². Gold is the most important resource in the area, and there are also deposits of bauxite, coltan, and diamonds. According to former minister Roberto Mirabal, the Mining Arc has a potential mineral value of $2 trillion US dollars. The Academy of Physical, Mathematical and Natural Sciences, the Venezuelan Society of Ecology, the Association of Archaeologists and Archaeologists of Venezuela (AAAV), the

National Assembly of Venezuela The National Assembly () is the federal legislature of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, which was first elected in 2000 under the 1999 constitution. It is a unicameral body made up of a variable number of members, who are elected by a ...

, the Latin America and Caribbean (LACA) Section of the Society for Conservation Biology (SCB), and the NGO

PROVEA The ''Venezuelan Education-Action Program on Human Rights'' or PROVEA () is one of the most prominent Venezuelan human rights organizations. According to the United Nations Human Rights Council, PROVEA "is an independent and autonomous non-govern ...

have publicly expressed their concern at the non-compliance with environmental and sociocultural impact studies, the violation of rights to prior consultation with indigenous communities, cultural and natural heritage, and national sovereignty. In 2020, the

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is a department of the United Nations Secretariat that works to promote and protect human rights that are guaranteed under international law and stipulated in the Univers ...

Michelle Bachelet Verónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria (; born 29 September 1951) is a Chilean politician who served as President of Chile from 2006 to 2010 and again from 2014 to 2018, becoming the first woman to hold the presidency. She was re-elected in December ...

, denounced that workers in the Orinoco Mining Arc are subjected to serious abuse and violence that caused at least 149 deaths between 2016 and 2020.

Location

The Arco Minero spans an area south of the

Orinoco river The Orinoco () is one of the longest rivers in South America at . Its drainage basin, sometimes known as the Orinoquia, covers approximately 1 million km2, with 65% of it in Venezuela and 35% in Colombia. It is the List of rivers by discharge, f ...

and covers the Venezuelan states of Amazonas, Bolívar and

Delta Amacuro Delta Amacuro State (, ) is one of the 23 States of Venezuela, states of Venezuela, and is the location of the Orinoco Delta. The Paria Gulf and the Atlantic Ocean are found to the north, Bolívar State (Venezuela), Bolívar State is found to th ...

. The region is one of the most biodiverse areas of the

Amazon rainforest The Amazon rainforest, also called the Amazon jungle or Amazonia, is a Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin ...

. Nearby

Canaima National Park Canaima National Park () is a park in south-eastern Venezuela that roughly occupies the same area as the La Gran Sabana, Gran Sabana region. It is located in Bolívar State (Venezuela), Bolívar State, reaching the borders with Brazil and Guya ...

is a

UNESCO World Heritage site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

. Mining has been reported inside Canaima National Park, Yapacana National Park, and in the

Alto Orinoco-Casiquiare Biosphere Reserve The Alto Orinoco-Casiquiare Biosphere Reserve is a UNESCO biosphere reserve in the Venezuelan Amazon biome. Location The Alto Orinoco-Casiquiare Biosphere Reserve was designated in 1993. It is located between 00°30' to 04°40'N and 62°45' to 6 ...

. The region is traditional territory of several Indigenous peoples including the Kari’ña, Warao, Arawak, Pemón, Ye’kwana, Sanemá o Hotï, Eñe’pa, Panare, Wánai, Mapoyo, Piaroa and Hiwi.

History

The Orinoco Mining Arc Strategic Development Zone was originally proposed by the Chávez administration in 2011. It was opened to development by president

Nicolas Maduro Nicolas or Nicolás may refer to: People Given name * Nicolas (given name) Mononym * Nicolas (footballer, born 1999), Brazilian footballer * Nicolas (footballer, born 2000), Brazilian footballer Surname Nicolas * Dafydd Nicolas (c.1705–1774), ...

in 2016 in an attempt to halt the Venezuelan economic crisis and bolster support for his increasingly unpopular administration. The mining arc has become a center for illegal mining. RAISG, (a network of Amazonian NGOs) reports that the Mining Arc has made Venezuela the Amazon country with the highest number of illegal mines. According to the organization SOS Orinoco, in the last 20 years, 779,600 hectares of forest have been destroyed. In 2021, Unesco's World Heritage Centre resolved to review the impact of mining in Canaima national park. The Canadian Embassy in Venezuela reported at least 59 illegal mines in Canaima park, some of them only 23 km from Angel Falls, with large areas being devastated by open-pit mining operations.

Impact

A group of scientists, members of the Latin America and Caribbean Section of the Society for Conservation Biology, denounced that although the Orinoco Mining Arc was initially designed to tighten government oversight over mineral mining and trading in the Guayana region of Venezuela, it has instead promoted the development of a complex network of intertwined legal and illegal activities throughout the country. The impact beyond its proposed borders is exemplified by the proliferation of mines inside protected areas and on top of

tepuy A tepui , or tepuy (), is a member of a family of table-top mountains or mesas found in northern South America, especially in Venezuela, western Guyana, and northern Brazil. The word tepui means "house of the gods" in the native tongue of the P ...

s that are protected as natural monuments. In 2020, the

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is a department of the United Nations Secretariat that works to promote and protect human rights that are guaranteed under international law and stipulated in the Univers ...

reported that workers in the Arco Minero were exposed to high levels of violence and exploitation by criminal groups that control the mines. They also said that illegal mining destroyed Indigenous peoples' habitat and threatened their sovereignty over their traditional territories. In 2020, the

Center for Strategic and International Studies The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is an American think tank based in Washington, D.C. From its founding in 1962 until 1987, it was an affiliate of Georgetown University, initially named the Center for Strategic and Inte ...

(CSIS) reported that illegal mining involved about 500,000 workers in the Arco Minero. Many Indigenous people have been coerced into working for the mines by threat of violence, with violent repression of people who resist the mines. Nearly half of the miners are children. Moreover, per CSIS, as mercury from mining has seeped into the soil and water systems, local indigenous populations have been exposed at dangerous levels. In the Caura river basin, a tributary to the Orinoco, 92 percent of indigenous women had elevated levels of mercury, which could damage the kidney and brain and impedes fetal development. Mining has created standing water and unsanitary conditions that result in a surge in malaria cases in the region. The most important environmental impacts of mining in the region are the destruction of ecosystems and rivers, the modification of topography, habitat fragmentation, and the pollution of water and fish by sediment and mercury. More data is urgently needed to evaluate the ecological consequences of the Orinoco Mining Arc on natural populations of plants and animals. The increase in mining activity has also increased the size of the human population and the influence of non-indigenous culture in the region. Displacement of entire communities due to the degradation of public health services and increased security risks.

Trafficking

With the cooperation of the Venezuelan military and local authorities, who receive bribes paid in gold, illegal gold is moved into Brazil, Guyana, Colombia, and island in the Caribbean, where fraudulent paperwork enables the gold to be sold in legal international markets.

References

External links

Arco Minero del Orinoco
*{{Citation, title=''Documental: El Arco Minero ¿Ecocidio o Suicidio?'' ocumentary: The Mining Arc: Ecocide or Suicide?date=1 February 2021 , url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmrtyC95ovw , work=SOSOrinoco , publisher=

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...