Venezuelan gold strike prompts invasion by 3,000 miners, military raid

Land in Palmarote that was covered in forest now looks like a desecrated cemetery due to artisanal mining pits. Image by Jeanfreddy Gutiérrez Torres. Gregorio and his brother said it was easy to become artisanal gold miners. The precious metal just appeared one day, revealed in the banks of the Pira Pra, a small stream that serves their small farming community of Palmarote. The hamlet is located in Carabobo state, 24 kilometers (15 miles) from Valencia, Venezuela’s third biggest city, and more than 600 kilometers (373 miles) from the Orinoco Mining Arc where the nation’s gold deposits are supposed to be located. What at first seemed like good fortune, has turned out mostly not to be the case. The discovery stimulated an illegal gold rush that deforested the landscape, polluted community water supplies, and ultimately resulted in a January military sweep to curtail the artisanal mining that detained 3,000 miners, jailed dozens, and allegedly killed twelve people. José Hilario Hernández (left), the owner of a property bordering the Pira Pira stream where gold was found, stands with his son-in-law amid some of the damage done by artisanal mining. The discovery of gold has caused conflicts between local people, with some hoping to strike it rich, while others seek to maintain their farming livelihoods and traditional community values. Image by Jeanfreddy Gutiérrez Torres. A quiet community with a viable economic future Palmarote is a rural village surrounded by fruit trees and small orange groves. Farmers there survive on conucos, small plots…

from Conservation news https://ift.tt/2FgcrjY
via IFTTT