The gold mines in Venezuela’s Amazonas state are getting all of the gasoline, while river captains have to make do, the association that groups such navigators told to El Pitazo.
The president of the Navigators of Amazona Association Alejandro Acosta said a barge that was supposed to arrive with 17,000 liters of gasoline for the captains filling up at the Puerto Venado, Samariapo, the station was diverting to the nearby gold mines.
Gold is being extracted unlawfully but with Nicolas Maduro regime protection in the area known as the Minning Arc, which includes Amazonas and in total comprises about 1% of all of Venezuela.
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As criminal gangs enforce gangland law in the mines, prostitution, slave trading and pollution of soil and rivers have all become new and serious problems in a once pristine region.
Acosta said seven municipalities receive their food and other goods over the river. Plus, some 200 teachers and students in native communities can’t go to school.
“They left us without our supply, and all with the complicity of PDVSA manager Victor Gutierrez,” Acosta said.
