Venezuelan soldiers deployed in the south of the country to combat illegal mining. Photo: Twitter/@Redi-andes/file photo.
Approximately two thousand illegal miners have been evicted from Yapacana National Park, located in the state of Amazonas, as part of the National Bolivarian Armed Force’s (FANB) Operation Autana 2023 aimed at protecting the Amazon rainforest.
“The FANB, as a whole, acts in the defense of the Amazon, of the national parks,” said Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro during the broadcast of his Con Maduro + program this week. “Do you know how many illegal miners there are in that area? More than ten thousand. We have already evicted almost two thousand.”
President Maduro Exhorts Media to Cover FANB’s Progress On Illegal Mining
President Maduro explained that the illegal miners “established a district and have destroyed the entire area,” generating significant damage to the ecosystem.
It's a positive sign that there is an effort to relocate the miners and their families, not just criminalize them. After all, these are mostly impoverished people eeking out a living. At the same time, it's hard to buy that authorities were somehow unaware that this was going on
— venezuelanalysis.com (@venanalysis) July 4, 2023
“Our Bolivarian National Armed Force is making [its] presence [felt] in the territory, liberating the Venezuelan Amazon, liberating the national parks of southern Venezuela and establishing order,” said the president.
FANB Destroys Illegal Mining Camps in Protected Forests of Venezuela
Previously, through his Twitter account @dhernandezlarez, the strategic operational commander of the FANB, General Domingo Hernández Lárez, stated that “a safe route of human evacuation is guaranteed for the immediate and voluntary eviction of all illegal inhabitants of Yapacana National Park, with due respect for human rights, due to the respect we owe to nature and the environment, and in accordance with our constitutional mandate and territorial integrity.”
In mid-June, the Venezuelan president ordered the Strategic Operational Command of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (CEOFANB) to intensify efforts to eradicate illegal mining in national parks and the Amazon rain-forest.
“We are fighting a battle for the defense of the deep Amazon, for the defense of the national parks,” said President Maduro. “The Bolivarian National Armed Force is fighting a battle. Thousands of soldiers and officers of our Bolivarian National Armed Force are dedicating entire days and nights.”
(Alba Ciudad) with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/SL
