Miners are demanding 88 kilometer of decent jobs
Monday, June 30, 2008

People from different sectors of the municipality Sifontes, dedicated to living in mining, are on the lookout for what may decide the Minister of Environment on the reserve is in place.

Yohana M. Anduze G.
Photo Anibal Barreto



Small miners asked the Minister of Environment to reflect on the decisions taken

Representatives of various community councils in the parish of San Isidro Kilometer 88 of Sifontes municipality, said at the headquarters of Correo del Caroní who disagree with the statements issued by the Minister of Environment, Yubirí Ortega, when they assured-not - allow the exploitation of the Imataca Forest Reserve.

"We do not have many benefits in our parishes", as well as reported Amoretty Lourdes, a member of the council communal rural areas, who commented that the only thing that has helped since about 30 years, is working with mining.

Daniels also Gomez, neighborhood leader, announced that do not have jobs and approved the statement by the minister, would have to leave the town in search of new opportunities, which considers "too difficult for the small miner."

The workers of mining in the region reported that there are two gold companies known as Brisas del Cuyuní Crystals and Venezuela, that they are not working, so ask government agencies to help them implement these works.

Without services
The reporters said they have no electricity and drinking water. "We the small miners do not have good services in our community, how little we get is through work in mines and reaches us for half live."

The owner of Atmosphere, in statements given last June 21, said that not "be permitted to open pit mining or extracting the Imataca Forest Reserve, because it would cause environmental degradation and contaminate the water of the country", so Miners who argue that "how can contaminate a small miner with a lantern and a peak in his hand?, that's all we have, because the machines are large transnationals are."

Miners invited to reflect on the minister of Environment, Yubirí Ortega, on the decisions to issue, because "they are mining approximately 19 thousand families that would be affected if the ban work in mines," said Gomez.

They called both the municipal and national authorities, to be closer to the scene and ensure the state in which they live inhabitants of rural areas, San Fabricio, Santo Domingo, Santa Maria del Granzón, Las Claritas, The Line, The Grandmother, Nuevas Claritas and indigenous communities who have no economic benefits to survive.

It is important to remember that Sierra Imataca, protected by the government since 1850, covers 3.5 million hectares of so-called shield of Guiana, the northeast corner of Venezuela, almost 300 kilometers from Caracas about. It is rich in gold, diamonds, iron, bauxite, manganese, copper and possesses a genetic diversity of species unique in the world.

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