Members of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) and alleged illegal miners clashed on September 13 in the Atabapo municipality of the southern Venezuelan state of Amazonas, where the military is conducting the mass expulsion of people engaged in the extraction of minerals, according to the NGO Kapé Kapé.
The non-governmental organization assured that the confrontation took place in the Yapacana National Park, where the FANB has carried out numerous security operations, especially since July 1, when the evacuations began.
“Kapé Kapé learned that the incident took place at the Cacique mine, between military personnel who were carrying out the eviction and people who were resisting leaving the protected area. The action would have left several people dead or wounded,” the group indicated on X.
The NGO shared photographs and videos showing people throwing objects, some of them hooded or with visible wounds, as well as rudimentary structures on fire and what appears to be tear gas.
Kapé Kapé stressed that “it has not been possible to accurately determine the magnitude of the incident due to differing versions from the site of the events.”
For his part, the strategic operational commander of the FANB, Domingo Hernández Lárez, indicated that evacuations continue in the park and recalled that the “construction of homes and structures is prohibited” in the site, without mentioning clashes or injuries during the evictions.
“All citizens, including members of indigenous peoples, have the responsibility to safeguard and protect nature,” wrote the military chief on X, where he shared images of the military operation and indicated that the total number of evacuees rose to 11,594, in Yapacana Park alone.
Since the beginning of the expulsions, the FANB had not reported confrontations or people injured during the operations in the area, inhabited almost exclusively by indigenous communities.
However, NGOs and individuals have mentioned several wounded, including people from the indigenous community. These sources have also reported several people killed, without specifying the number.
NGO demands immediate measures to protect human rights during the conflict in the Venezuelan Amazon
Following the first reports of the incident, the Venezuelan NGO Un Mundo Sin Mordaza urged the national authorities to take “immediate measures” to protect human rights in the Venezuelan Amazon, after two people died and six were wounded during a confrontation between State security forces and illegal miners, according to military sources.
“We demand that the Venezuelan authorities take immediate measures to protect the human rights of all people involved in these clashes, ensuring their safety and providing medical care and support to the wounded,” the organization wrote on X.
The organization also demanded an “impartial and exhaustive” investigation of the events, which occurred in a sector of the Yapacana National Park, in the state of Amazonas (not far from from border with Brazil and Colombia), and accountability from those responsible for any human rights violation”
The NGO warned of a “serious human rights emergency” in the park, where “illegal miners have deployed excessive violence with firearms, Molotov cocktails and spears,” during operations of dismantling and eviction carried out by the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB), which has evacuated more than 12,000 people, according to the military”
In a statement on September 13, the institution explained that around “400 soldiers proceeded to evict, dismantle and destroy more than 500 clandestine structures used for illegal mining” in a sector of the state bordering Colombia and Brazil.
On September 14, the strategic operational commander of the FANB, Domingo Hernández Lárez, reported an attack against a military contingent by “approximately 500 illegal miners.”
Later that day, the Armed Forces confirmed two people dead and six wounded, including three soldiers, marking the first time that an incident of violence was reported during the operations.
Un Mundo Sin Mordaza “firmly rejects (…) all forms of violence” and called on the international community, organizations and “relevant actors in the protection of the environment” to “speak out against these violations” in the Yapacana National Park.
The UN called for a de-escalation of the tensions in the Venezuelan Amazon and expressed its willingness to support the promotion of “lasting solutions based on comprehensive respect for the rule of law, human rights and environment.”
Translated by José Rafael Medina
