February 24, 2021, marked the fifth anniversary of Decree 2,248 which declared 43,182 square miles south of the Orinoco River a large-scale exploration and exploitation mining site. Officially named the “Orinoco Mining Arc National Strategic Development Zone”, it comprises four areas of great biological and cultural diversity: Guayana, Paragua and Caura rivers, the Caroní river basin, and the mountainous Sierra de Imataca. The geology of this enormous territory is characterized by containing potential reserves of gold, copper, diamond, coltan, iron, bauxite, and other minerals of industrial value. However, it is also an area of great ecological fragility that is almost impossible to restore, due to its rich Amazonian biodiversity and the environmental benefits it brings, not to mention its great scenic beauty and potential for ecotourism.
The territory south of the Orinoco River and its delta has historically been one of the best-protected areas in Venezuela in terms of biodiversity, forested areas, and water conservation, which, together with the cultural richness of the indigenous peoples settled there since ancient times, allows dubbing the mining of gold and the general open pit mining activity in the region the greatest ecological crime in the history of Venezuela. The approval of what is commonly called the Orinoco Mining Arc meant the de facto abolition of the “Areas Under Special Administration Regime”, legal entities intended to protect large swathes of land located in the strategic basin of the Caroní River and the Imataca Forest Reserve, among others. At the same time, it implied the flagrant breach of international agreements signed by the country, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity and the World Heritage Convention, just to mention two of the most important instruments.
On top of that, this infamous decree constitutes a direct attack against the strategic vision of the country since it promotes pollution and the destruction of the last reserves of freshwater in Venezuela, besides affecting the already meager and precarious hydroelectric production. This is how the Orinoco river has ended up being caught between an oil belt to the north and a mining belt to the south. In the words of former senator A. Luzardo, this is a much worse repeat of the fate of Lake Maracaibo, which has been heavily polluted with oil and toxic substances of all kinds. The decree means destruction and massive deforestation with a negative impact on the states of Amazonas, Bolívar, and Delta Amacuro, sedimentation of waterways, soil degradation, chemical pollution due to the use of mercury and cyanide, extinction of flora and fauna, the unsustainable increase of hunting, the proliferation of the illegal trade in wildlife and wood, the spread of diseases such as malaria and STDs, invasions, uprooting and dismantling of traditional indigenous and rural communities, sexual and labor exploitation, armed confrontations, and many other evils. In short, we are in the presence of a predatory extractivism based on the intensive use of scarce resources, whose alleged fiscal justification is showcased as the magic solution to the economic ruin of the country.
Five years after the approval of the decree, the Mining Arc project has become a resounding failure in all senses. While the political, economic, and humanitarian crisis in the country worsens every day, criminal groups, including Colombian guerrillas and national and transnational criminal organizations, compete for the appropriation of the valuable mineral resources that belong to all Venezuelans. Therefore, it is not only about irreversible damage to the environment, but also serious violations of the human rights of the local population and a true blow to our sovereignty given that Venezuela is being transformed into a dangerous threat to regional and hemispheric security. At this point, it is an open secret that senior civil, military, and police officials of the regime use the different security forces and public corporations such as Minerven and the Compañía Anónima Militar de Industrias Mineras, Petrolífera y de Gas (CAMIMPEG) – the latter created on February 10, 2016, for the exclusive usufruct of the military leadership in government functions – to participate in the smuggling of minerals in collaboration with criminal groups in the phases of extraction, processing, and export. This is how unregulated mining ended up spreading far beyond the boundaries established by the decree, with more than 1,400 illegal mining sites scattered around the southern banks of the Orinoco river, affecting the Canaima and Yapacana National Parks, the Alto Orinoco-Casiquiare Biosphere Reserve, the Guaiquinima Natural Monument, and the basins of Caroní, Paragua, Caura, Icabarú, Aro, and Cuchivero rivers, among others.
One of the least addressed aspects of such a complex issue is the one referring to the socio-cultural implications of the rentistic model, which ends up engulfing any responsible and sustainable medium and long-term strategy that could guarantee a future of greater well-being for Venezuelans. In this way, the decree also promotes the idea of magic and easy solutions to overcome the enormous problems we face. In other words, it is the illusion of a project that offers immediate solutions to the crisis without the need to appeal to education, individual and collective effort, anticipation in the face of the challenges of the future, and long-term tenacious work. Ultimately, it is the complete opposite of the conduction of a national social project, an endeavor in which societies learn to agree on ways to obtain mutual benefits for all their members. After all, one thing to take life as it comes and quite another to live according to our plans, capabilities, and objectives.
So, in these unfortunate times, we would have to agree with A. Luzardo on that the Republic is being lost, the nation is disintegrating at the hands of the national executive power due to the economic, environmental, social, and moral catastrophe brought about by a mining, oil and coal production model that has only encouraged corruption, unproductivity, anarchy, crime, and looting. For such dire reasons, we do not hesitate to affirm that we are facing another anniversary of the “thanatopolitics” of 21st-century socialism, in which crimes against nature, humanity, and the nation converge.
In order to address the serious human rights abuses and environmental destruction that have resulted from the authoritarian “legalization” of mining south of the Orinoco River, it is essential to establish a Truth Commission and a Transitional Justice System protected by international law and backed by international cooperation, which should be tasked with administering justice on the multiple crimes that are being committed in the context of the suicidal decree of 21st-century socialism. Today, Venezuelan society has the titanic challenge of rethinking itself, transcending the extractivist model, and visualizing resilient and sustainable alternatives that ensure a better future for new generations.
Translated by José Rafael Medina
