Runrun.es | August 2020 | SOSOrinoco was interviewed for this article

What exactly happened in Canaima on December 8-9, 2018?

An in depth article by the Wall Street Journal discusses the content of the report presented by SOSOrinoco to International Union for Conservation of Nature IUCN & UNESCO in July 2018 on the current gold mining situation in Canaima National Park: A World Heritage Site in Venezuela

Mapa de las 15 minas de oro ilegales dentro del Parque Nacional Canaima (Patrimonio de la Humanidad) Map of the 15 illegal gold mining sites inside Canaima National Park (World Heritage Site)

Illegal mining within the Canaima National Park in #Venezuela, a World Heritage Site designated by @unescowhc.@NicolasMaduro gov’t is responsible for this ecocide. We should raise our voices against this ecocide @UNEnvironment @UN #sosOrinoco

Downstream from Icabarú, one can see more deforested mining sites along both banks of the Icabarú, and also another settlement with an unpaved landing strip. At the confluence of the Icabarú and Caroní rivers there is a small settlement with a dirt runway for light aircraft, and one can also see mining sites located inside, as well as outside of Canaima National Park. Miners die on a regular basis as a result of being buried alive as flimsy cliffs collapse from the action of pressurized water jets ejected by the monitors used in the hydraulic mining method

In the initial SOS Orinoco report, published in July of 2018, describing mining activity inside Canaima National Park (CNP), a World Heritage Site (WHS) recognized by UNESCO, the authors characterized and explained this phenomenon as being a consequence of the current Venezuelan government’s political strategy of promoting mining activity amidst an economic, social and political collapse that the regime itself has created and promoted. This document is an update of that first report, where the authors endeavored to describe what has happened in CNP and what has been the institutional response from UNESCO, IUCN and the Venezuelan government itself.

In recent years there has been an increase in information pertaining to a boom in gold mining activity within Canaima National Park (CNP), a World Heritage Site (WHS). Furthermore, this situation falls within the context of a strategic policy of the current Venezuelan government that promotes mining activities over vast geographic areas, and encompasses all mining categories.