{"id":4562,"date":"2017-09-22T19:04:53","date_gmt":"2017-09-22T16:04:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/anticorr.media\/?p=4562"},"modified":"2017-09-29T10:42:56","modified_gmt":"2017-09-29T07:42:56","slug":"zoloto-opg-i-korrupciya-venesuely-sensacionnoe-zhurnalistskoe-rassledovanie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anticorr.media\/en\/zoloto-opg-i-korrupciya-venesuely-sensacionnoe-zhurnalistskoe-rassledovanie\/","title":{"rendered":"Gold and Chaos in Orinoco"},"content":{"rendered":"

This material belongs to: OCCRP<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A joint investigation by Efecto Cocuyo<\/a> and OCCRP \u200bexplores the Orinoco Mining Arc<\/a> \u2014 the Venezuelan government’s controversial attempt to find new sources of wealth \u2014 and the devastating effects of the mining on the people who live there.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Once Latin America\u2019s\u00a0richest country<\/a>, Venezuela is now known around the world for political conflict and economic failure.<\/strong><\/p>\n

During the tenure of President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a>, the nation\u2019s oil income has plummeted. The oil-driven economy followed suit, with GDP per capita falling by almost a third since 2013.<\/p>\n

Now, even as security forces battle protesters in the streets, ordinary people must queue to buy food. Hyperinflation has made the currency nearly worthless. Even basic medicines are in short supply.<\/p>\n

Early last year, in an attempt to prop up the failing economy, President Maduro resurrected an old mining project first proposed by his predecessor, the late Hugo Ch\u00e1vez<\/a>. On Feb. 24, 2016, Maduro signed a decree declaring a \u201cNational Strategic Development Zone<\/a>\u201d in Venezuela\u2019s Guiana Highlands<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The project \u2014 called the \u201cOrinoco Mining Arc\u201d \u2014 aims to exploit the region\u2019s largely untapped mineral wealth. In a territory south of the Orinoco river<\/a> spanning nearly 112,000 square kilometers (larger than Bulgaria or Cuba) lie some of the country\u2019s greatest mineral treasures: gold, diamonds, and coltan, a metallic ore crucial to the electronic and arms industries.<\/p>\n

Maduro\u2019s rhetoric was grand. \u201cWe have a clear national project which integrates all the wishes of the country,\u201d a local television channel reported. \u201cWe are building the right to the future for a powerful Venezuela.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the challenges of mining this enormous area aren\u2019t just logistical. The Orinoco Mining Arc is part of the\u00a0Amazon River basin<\/a>, an ecosystem of global interest for its immense biodiversity and for the 16 officially recognized indigenous peoples that have made it their home since ancient times.<\/p>\n

The government made all the right promises,\u00a0pledging<\/a>\u00a0to tap the wealth while respecting the environment, adjusting for socio-cultural impact, reinvesting revenues into\u00a0benefits<\/a>\u00a0for the most vulnerable, and tackling the threat of organized crime.<\/p>\n

Now, a year and a half after the Orinoco Mineral Arc was established, OCCRP reporters have visited the area to see what is going on for themselves.<\/p>\n

What they found are unfulfilled promises.<\/p>\n

The prospect of finding\u00a0sufficient resources to offset the fall of oil prices<\/a>\u00a0remains elusive.<\/p>\n

Despite\u00a0assurances<\/a>\u00a0that unsafe practices would be banned, artisanal miners are still using deadly mercury to refine gold.<\/p>\n

Moreover, the arrival of large-scale mining has fueled merciless disputes over the precious metals. It is a struggle dominated by mafia clans, government greed, a foreign company with its own mysterious agenda \u2014 and, ultimately, a lack of government control.<\/p>\n

Maduro\u00a0promised<\/a>\u00a0wealth and prosperity. What the people got instead was death, illness, gang rule, destruction to indigenous people, and environmental catastrophe.<\/p>\n

Socialist Mining Brigades Face Crime and Falling Output<\/h3>\n

In 2011, as then-President Hugo Chavez nationalized the gold mining industry, the leftist leader claimed he had a new idea that would make life better for all Venezuelans. He described a new \u201cmining arc\u201d south of the Orinoco River<\/a>, in the northern Amazon<\/a>, that could be exploited for vast minerals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a huge potential for economic power,\u201d Chavez said.<\/p>\n

While Chavez died before he was able to enact his plan, in February 2016 his successor Nicolas Maduro started implementing the Orinoco Mining Arc. That November, Maduro promoted a new model of extracting minerals that would revive the country\u2019s stagnant mining industry \u2013 an \u201carmy\u201d of miners called the Socialist Mining Brigades<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The brigades were intended to replace the illegal mining that had flourished in the region. They would sell the gold they extracted to Minerven<\/a>, the state mining company, which would keep 3 percent of its value for itself. The gold, Maduro said, would then go to the national bank to \u201cstrengthen the reserves,\u201d while half of the proceeds would go to health, education, and other social spending. And the miners would no longer use mercury \u2013 he had banned the use of the dangerous chemical in any mining operations in an August decree. The system was finally begun in January 2017.<\/p>\n

The president had promised that Venezuelan mining would become cleaner, safer, and more productive \u2013 but that\u2019s not how it has worked out.<\/p>\n

The brigades continue to use mercury as they have in the past. Many sell their gold not to the government as the plan envisioned, but to the highest bidder. And meanwhile, the miners face the continuing problem of organized crime groups demanding a cut of their earnings and fixing the price of gold in the region. (See:\u00a0Gang Lords Rule the Orinoco Mining Arc<\/a>)<\/p>\n

A Dying Industry?<\/h3>\n

Gold production in Venezuela has been plummeting for a long time.<\/p>\n

In 2011, when the industry was first nationalized, the official annual gold output of the country\u2019s mines was nearly 4,700 kilograms. It fell steeply in the following years. By 2015, the Venezuelan Mining Corporation<\/a> said it produced just 430 kilograms \u2013 28 percent of the planned total and a 91 percent drop from the first year of nationalization. The Energy and Oil Ministry reported a different figure of 558 kilograms for 2015 \u2013 47 percent lower than in 2014.<\/p>\n

In the 2015 annual report of the Ministry of Oil and Mining, the Venezuelan Mining Corporation provided various reasons for missing its goals: lack of transportation for the staff, protests over drinking water supplies, power failures, and supply shortages.<\/p>\n

The official output has only continued to drop since, while an unknown amount of gold has been mined and sold illegally.<\/p>\n

Successive ministers claim turn-around<\/h3>\n
\"\"
Former Minister of Ecological Mining Development Jorge Arreaza<\/a> displays gold ingots. Source: Venezuela’s mining ministry.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

State ministers insist the new mining brigades are working. During Roberto Mirabal<\/a>\u2019s short tenure as Environmental Mining Development minister (he was replaced in February 2017, just seven months after his appointment), he claimed that 400 kilograms were mined in six months in 2016, a rate of gold output double that of 2015.<\/p>\n

This year, now that the Socialist Mining Brigades are at work, the claims regarding gold extraction in the Orinoco Mining Arc have kept on climbing:<\/p>\n