The fatal impact represented by the mining 'boom' on
the indigenous population of Guayana is self-
evident. This group is made up of some 8,000 people
from Pemon, Yanomani, Piaroa, Guakibo, Yekwana
and another 17 ethnic groups (25% of the countries
aboriginal population and 80% of its auchtonomous
groups. For them, the occupants of history perfectly
integrated within this fragile environment, such
ecocide represents a direct genocidal attack which
dates back considerably but which has recently
become more acute due to the aggressive re-
emergence of those small mines (in Brazil called
'garimpeiros') who are the shock troops in the
territorial occupation and mineral exploitation
whose forthcoming benefactors will be more
powerful. It has been calculated that there are some
30,000 of these mines in the region and this
destructive activity ranges from the poisoning of
rivers and lands with mercury (in Curoni they are
mining 3,000 kg of this material p.a. which is highly
toxic and is used to separate gold from other
minerals) and including water contamination and
sediment disturbance (the river Curoni in 1982 had
an average content flow of 4,500 tons per day of
such water; in 1995 it has 10,500 per day) and
culminating in the murder and human rights
violations of large numbers of indigenous people.
With calculated hypocrisy the defenders of the TNC
mining establishment maintain they are unmasking
the crude damage caused by the 'garimpeiros' arguing
that they are promoting a 'more rational and
ecologically more sustainable' exploitation.
However, there has been no previous experience of
an open cast mining system in tropical areas where
its introduction has not produced irreparable damage
nor is there a single scientific work published which
confirms what the mining companies are saying. In
fact the technology that will be used by Cristalex,
Yellow Jack, Monarch or Placer Dome is the same
which is used outside the tropics and will not be
challenged by the complacent attitude towards
environmental protection which the State will
undoubtedly assume in order 'not to upset foreign
investors' which shows clearly, that which we have
no hesitation in qualifying as, the greatest threat to
the ecology of the region. That this is no
exaggeration was confirmed on the 19th August
when one and a half million litres of cyanide waste
were poured into the Omai and Esequibo rivers near
Guayana causing the worst ecological disaster in this
country as a result of the activities of a gold
subsidiary owned by TNCs in the US and Canada.
Moreover the demands for profit which would allow
these companies to operate put such pressure on the
State so that it not only cedes to demands for lower
taxes, export of profit but also all kinds of 'indirect
advantages' (cheap energy, communications, various
public works etc.) not to mention the secret demands
relating to the over exploitation of the workforce
where its history in S. Africa, Brazil or the
Dominican Republic is a grave portent of what can
be expected by the workforce. It will be in this way
that the supposed wonders of the golden illusion
will disappear in a puff of smoke without
compensation for the great economic, ecological,
social and cultural costs that it will inflict.
There has been a response to the situation,
emanating from ecological and pro Venezuelan
indigenous people's groups organised in 1995 and
forming the National Co-ordination against Mining
which by means of actions, documents and
declarations has attempted to bring attention to the
problem. Of course the lovers of power and the
wider media have attempted to minimise this voice of
dissent and imposed the agreement of the
'respectable' voice of the country which belongs to
the marvels of the mining companies and their
governmental cohorts. Despite this a level of
consciousness has been reached and some debate has
occurred relating to this issue between those who are
interested in the ecological and indigenous question
forcing Congress to deal with the issue which in turn
has frozen the process of contract signing since the
end of 1994 and so that the Procurator General ,
very recently, declared the whole process illegal. We
do not believe that this means that the government of
Rafael Caldera has decided to give up on the neo-
liberal policies for the gold mining industry but
rather that these are simply manoeuvres to distract
and pacify potential opponents and to simply moor a
business which promises to be so profitable for its
beneficiaries and so catastrophic for the Amazonian
Venezuelans. However, we must keep up our vigil
and not give up in our opposition to that which is
being prepared for us.
Note: To lend support to this campaign and to get
more up to date information write to:- Coordinadora
Nacional Contra la Mineria c/o GIDA; Apartado
Postal 47450; Caracas 1041-A; Venezuela.
(Colectivo Plum@ - Revista CORREO A;
Venezuela)