VENEZUELA - GOLD AND ECOCIDE With the enthusiastic complicity of the State and the participation of Canadian, US, British and S African transnational mining companies, Venezuela is seeing the setting up of a project promoting the immediate exploitation of a rich gold reserve which, according to its promoters and beneficiaries, will turn out to be the discovery of the famous El Dorado - sought after so remorselessly in the 16th century by Europeans in these lands. We are talking of between 8 and 12 thousand tons of probable reserves which would represent 10% of world stock with a current market value of 140 thousand million dollars. And if that were not all we are supposedly speaking of a high quality mineral with extraction of 8, 12 or even 16 grams of gold for every ton of processed material, which compares very favourably with the production from S African seams which give an average of 4 grams per ton. So it is not strange that people have noticed a certain 'gold fever' which has been fed with the notion that the richness will prove a solution to the grave economic difficulties that the country experienced during the 1980s. Before 1991 gold extraction on a wide scale was under the jurisdiction of the State which showed little interest since oil was more profitable and it maintained only modest production from the old seams of El Callao which never went over 12 tons p.a. and allowed for small scale mining by crafts people to extract a small tonnage of alluvium gold. But since then, inspired by the neo-liberal economic programme a process was set up to give out big contracts for gold exploitation which, up until 1994 had contracted out 436 sites over a surface of 1,283,882 hectares, nearly 12,839 Kms2 with a projected figure of 30,000 km2 (an area nearly the size of Belgium or Catalunya and slightly bigger than the Venezuelan Andean region). Official and private voices speak of production figures for the year 2000 of between 40 and 60 tons, turning the country into one of the major world producers and giving jobs to some 120,000 people and a national revenue of 250 million dollars p.a. Activity at the first major mine will begin in 1996 (Las Cristinas in the state of Bolivar and run by the Canadian company Placer Dome) and will yield 300,000 ounces of gold p.a. i.e. 9,331 tons. But this promised bonanza poses an enormous ecological problem: gold mining is only possible to the South of the Orinoco river in the vast region of Guayana, which, like the rest of the Amazon river basin has unique biodiversity characteristics whose preservation is vital and where human intervention must be measured against the highest standards in order not to upset the balance of this the greatest example of natural complexity in the world and which makes Venezuela the fourth country in the world with regard to bio diversity. Guayana is made up of 44% of Venezuelan territory but with only 5.5% of its population which is mainly concentrated in a small area near Orinocco, the rest of the area having remained relatively free from the predatory intervention of the State and capitalism. The mining potential of Guayana (gold, diamonds, bauxite, iron, radioactive materials, titanium etc.) has been known about and exploited for some time but the areas where these activities have taken place, the methods used to pursue them and their impact on the ecosystem has scarcely affected this vast area (although the environmental disasters caused by small mines, state technocrats and landowners has already caused some damage in certain areas). Now with the new dreams of gold the danger has grown and what we are currently seeing confirms this fear. We are now seeing the same process of handing out contracts which, as one might expect of the Venezuelan State has been accompanied by all sorts of vice and corruption whose greatest perpetrators have been the successive presidents of the Venezuelan Corporation of Guayana and the Energy ministers (especially the current Erwin Arrieta, also general secretary of OPEC) accused of being, either directly or through front men, the main receivers of mining permits which they then sell on to the TNCs in exchange for handsome commissions. These corrupt handouts even include areas which have been specifically excluded by legislation which set up the Canaima National Park (where one can see those extraordinary geographic formations known as 'tepui' and the highest waterfall in the world the Cherun Meru or Salto Angel) where 18 contracts have been signed giving away about 5,000 hectares in the North of the Park. Other natural sanctuaries have been affected such as the Southern Protected Zone of the State of Bolivar, from whence spring the biggest rivers in the country and the Forest Reserve of Imateca which suffers 40% of the mining activities in the region despite the promises of the bureaucracy which claims to protect it. With regard to the Amazon State mining activity is proceeding apace in order to render obsolete any attempt to put a brake on its activities which in reality is becoming more and more a *fait accompli* * * * The fatal impact represented by the mining 'boom' on the indigenous population of Guayana is self- evident. This group is made up of some 8,000 people from Pemon, Yanomani, Piaroa, Guakibo, Yekwana and another 17 ethnic groups (25% of the countries aboriginal population and 80% of its auchtonomous groups. For them, the occupants of history perfectly integrated within this fragile environment, such ecocide represents a direct genocidal attack which dates back considerably but which has recently become more acute due to the aggressive re- emergence of those small mines (in Brazil called 'garimpeiros') who are the shock troops in the territorial occupation and mineral exploitation whose forthcoming benefactors will be more powerful. It has been calculated that there are some 30,000 of these mines in the region and this destructive activity ranges from the poisoning of rivers and lands with mercury (in Curoni they are mining 3,000 kg of this material p.a. which is highly toxic and is used to separate gold from other minerals) and including water contamination and sediment disturbance (the river Curoni in 1982 had an average content flow of 4,500 tons per day of such water; in 1995 it has 10,500 per day) and culminating in the murder and human rights violations of large numbers of indigenous people. With calculated hypocrisy the defenders of the TNC mining establishment maintain they are unmasking the crude damage caused by the 'garimpeiros' arguing that they are promoting a 'more rational and ecologically more sustainable' exploitation. However, there has been no previous experience of an open cast mining system in tropical areas where its introduction has not produced irreparable damage nor is there a single scientific work published which confirms what the mining companies are saying. In fact the technology that will be used by Cristalex, Yellow Jack, Monarch or Placer Dome is the same which is used outside the tropics and will not be challenged by the complacent attitude towards environmental protection which the State will undoubtedly assume in order 'not to upset foreign investors' which shows clearly, that which we have no hesitation in qualifying as, the greatest threat to the ecology of the region. That this is no exaggeration was confirmed on the 19th August when one and a half million litres of cyanide waste were poured into the Omai and Esequibo rivers near Guayana causing the worst ecological disaster in this country as a result of the activities of a gold subsidiary owned by TNCs in the US and Canada. Moreover the demands for profit which would allow these companies to operate put such pressure on the State so that it not only cedes to demands for lower taxes, export of profit but also all kinds of 'indirect advantages' (cheap energy, communications, various public works etc.) not to mention the secret demands relating to the over exploitation of the workforce where its history in S. Africa, Brazil or the Dominican Republic is a grave portent of what can be expected by the workforce. It will be in this way that the supposed wonders of the golden illusion will disappear in a puff of smoke without compensation for the great economic, ecological, social and cultural costs that it will inflict. There has been a response to the situation, emanating from ecological and pro Venezuelan indigenous people's groups organised in 1995 and forming the National Co-ordination against Mining which by means of actions, documents and declarations has attempted to bring attention to the problem. Of course the lovers of power and the wider media have attempted to minimise this voice of dissent and imposed the agreement of the 'respectable' voice of the country which belongs to the marvels of the mining companies and their governmental cohorts. Despite this a level of consciousness has been reached and some debate has occurred relating to this issue between those who are interested in the ecological and indigenous question forcing Congress to deal with the issue which in turn has frozen the process of contract signing since the end of 1994 and so that the Procurator General , very recently, declared the whole process illegal. We do not believe that this means that the government of Rafael Caldera has decided to give up on the neo- liberal policies for the gold mining industry but rather that these are simply manoeuvres to distract and pacify potential opponents and to simply moor a business which promises to be so profitable for its beneficiaries and so catastrophic for the Amazonian Venezuelans. However, we must keep up our vigil and not give up in our opposition to that which is being prepared for us. Note: To lend support to this campaign and to get more up to date information write to:- Coordinadora Nacional Contra la Mineria c/o GIDA; Apartado Postal 47450; Caracas 1041-A; Venezuela. (Colectivo Plum@ - Revista CORREO A; Venezuela)