Before they got into organized crime, many of these men had their boots in the mud of Bolívar, digging for the world’s most sought-after metal among the hundreds of small-scale mines scattered in the jungles around Las Claritas. About 90 percent of Venezuela’s gold production comes from these small, open-pit, alluvial, and tunnel-mining projects that are causing deforestation and mercury pollution in a region known for its lush forests, wide rivers, and Indigenous tribes.
read more... http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/eij/article/arc_of_desperation/
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