Venezuela Indians, Politicians Protest Gold Mining
7/3/97
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Headline: Venezuela Indians, Politicians Protest Gold Mining
Source: Reuters
Date: 7/3/97
Copyright 1997 by Reuters
CARACAS (Reuter) - An unusual alliance of opposition
politicians, environmentalists and Indian leaders called on the
government Thursday to stop controversial plans to turn a huge
forest reserve into a gold mining project.
Some 500 protesters including barefoot Pemon Indians daubed
in red paint and wearing loincloths marched through Caracas'
traffic-clogged center to protest the Venezuelan government's
scheme to develop the Imataca reserve, near the Guayanese
border. The marchers waved banners and chanted ``Imataca's
greatest wealth is the Pemons.''
``The executive didn't even consult Congress or its
environmental commission,'' Cesar Perez Vivas of opposition
social democrat party Copei said. ``We're going to ask Congress
to revoke the decree ... it's a lie the opening will put illegal
mining in order.''
Congress's President Cristobal Fernandez Dalo received the
protesters and later issued on behalf of the Senate a
non-binding request that President Rafael Caldera postpone the
project.
The executive should ``begin a process of public
consultation ... and incorporate its suggestions so as to ensure
sustainable development of the forest reserve,'' read the
request.
``Imataca is our house. The mining plan ignores our rights
as human beings ... we want legal recognition of our land
rights,'' declared Jose Luis Gonzalez, president of the Indian
Federation for Bolivar state in southeastern Venezuela, which
groups the 10,000 Indians currently living in the forest.
Government officials argue the reserve's delicate ecosystem
is already being destroyed by about 20,000 illegal miners
working gold reserves valued at $150 billion. The government
instead wants to open more than a third of the forest's 7.4
million acres to more controlled development by foreign
companies.
The decree ``will preserve and could even better nature ...
There should be more laws like this,'' Energy and Mines minister
Erwin Arrieta said on Thursday.
But Jose Urbinas, adviser to Congress's environmental
commission, said: ``If they can't control what's being mined
now, how will they be able to control it when there's even