(Good for Chavez to put his foot down when it comes to environmental concerns.)
NY Times, October 29, 2006
Boomtown in Venezuela Confronts Mining Ban
By SIMON ROMERO
LA PARAGUA, Venezuela This dusty, remote river
port in southeastern Venezuela feels a bit like a
latter-day Deadwood. Dreams of striking it rich
in gold or diamonds have drawn about 5,000 people
to La Paragua and some 40,000 to nearby areas,
from beyond this country to Brazil, Colombia and Guyana.
Shopkeepers from the Middle East cater to a
clientele that communicates in a local patois of
Spanish, Portuguese and Guyanese-accented
English. Between forays into the bush, the miners
support a cauldron of bars, prostitutes and
storefronts dealing in precious metals.
But the town has become a focus of efforts by
President Hugo Chávez to halt much of the mining,
citing environmental concerns. In September, army
soldiers sent here to enforce a mining ban killed
six miners, setting off violent protests. Miners
blocked access to the town, burning army
vehicles, and destroyed the mayors residence in the nearby town of Maripa.
A dark mood weighs heavily here. Residents speak
with fear about army checkpoints and the presence
of soldiers who threaten their livelihoods.
Graffiti on the walls of dozens of buildings rail
at Mr. Chávez, mourn the miners and even take
shots at the governments recent military purchases from Russia.
Residents say they will stay and that the mining
will go on. Longino Guerra, an immigrant from the
Canary Islands who operates a warehousing and
bush-pilot service in La Paragua, said, As long
as there are diamonds and gold in the ground, there will be miners here.
But the environmental toll can be high. Open-pit
mines scar the fragile landscape of Bolívar
State, home to the soaring sandstone mesas known
as tepuis, and to Angel Falls, the worlds
highest waterfall. The mercury used to pry gold
from riverbeds pollutes water systems, and
dredging and mining operations erode riverbanks
and silt up the river. That threatens the Guri
hydroelectric complex, which provides Venezuela
up to three-quarters of its electricity.
Its a complicated situation with no easy
solution, said Argenis Palacio, an official with
the National Statistics Institute who has been
taking a census of the area. Weve encountered
miners from as far away as the Czech Republic and
Portugal who are drawn here by the idea that
there is no oversight of their activities.
The government has promised to create jobs for
miners in tourism or agriculture, and to teach
them to plant crops like cassava or corn. But
miners say the promises have not been fulfilled,
and last year, hundreds near the town of Las
Claritas blocked a highway to Brazil and threw Molotov cocktails at troops.
In early October, border tensions were added to
the fury over the September killings, when
Venezuelan soldiers killed a Guyanese citizen,
claiming he was smuggling gasoline across the
border for generators used in the areas mines.
Maps in Venezuela still claim large swaths of
Guyana, describing the region as a reclamation zone.
When the national guard was responsible for the
area, it was accused of human rights abuses and
taking bribes. Last year, Mr. Chávez replaced it
with an army-led force called TO-5, for Theater
of Operations No. 5. Now, Gen. Raúl Baduel, the
defense minister, said, prosecutors plan to
investigate 18 military officials with the new force.
The general has described the September attack as
an enforcement operation that went awry. Troops
were sent to a camp detected in an area where
mining was prohibited with orders to destroy
machinery and tools, he told reporters.
But the soldiers shot at least seven miners with
high-caliber weapons at close range, killing all but one.
The lone survivor, a Venezuelan who suffered
multiple gunshot wounds, survived by pretending
he was dead, his sister said. That man, Manuel
Felipe Lizardi, 36, has been recovering at a
hospital three hours away in Ciudad Bolívar.
He had the angels by his side, said the sister,
Berenice Lizardi, 28. Now Im afraid the army will come after him and us.
The justice minister, Jesse Chacón, said
ballistic studies of the corpses makes us
suppose there was at least an excess use of force.
Control over security in the area got out of the
hands of the government, said Alexander Luzardo,
a professor of anthropology and environmental
rights at Central University of Venezuela and a
former Chávez campaign official.
He said the incident was a blow both to the
governments environmental policy and its
approach to indigenous groups, since small-scale
mining was essentially condoned during most of
Mr. Chávezs government, which began in 1998.
Nothing justifies the killing, he said.
Manuel Rosales, the main opposition candidate in
presidential elections set for December, came
here recently to criticize the governments
inability to carry out viable mining guidelines.
Further political fallout may depend on the
governments ability to counter claims that
soldiers demand money from miners for allowing them to work.
Still, even as the town has crystallized into a
place of frustration with the army and Mr.
Chávezs government, the mining goes on.
Residents gathered on a recent afternoon at a
riverfront bar to watch miners emerge muddy and
exhausted from days in the bush.
If Chávez wants to empty the mines, were
finished, said Ana Victoria Mendoza Palma, 23, a
cook. The government says it wants miners to
work in tourism, but why would anyone come here?
Jens Erik Gould contributed reporting from Caracas.
