Criminal groups that control some of the gold mines in the Orinoco Mining Arc (AMO) in Venezuela exploit, beat and kill people working there, UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said in a new report on Wednesday
UNITED NATIONS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th July, 2020) Criminal groups that control some of the gold mines in the Orinoco Mining Arc (AMO) in Venezuela exploit, beat and kill people working there, UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said in a new report on Wednesday.
"Criminal groups and armed elements use violence to exercise control over mining areas," the report said. "Reported examples include a miner beaten in public for stealing a gas cylinder; a young man shot in both hands for stealing a gram of gold; a woman beaten with sticks for stealing a phone from a sindicato [criminal groups] member; and a miner having a hand cut off for not declaring a gold nugget. Punishment also includes killings."
According to witness accounts, bodies of miners are often thrown into old mining pits, OHCHR said. Since March 2016, some 149 men and women have died in the area with the alleged involvement of security forces in these incidents, it added.
"Despite the considerable presence of security and military forces in the region, and the efforts undertaken to address criminal activity, the authorities have failed to investigate and prosecute human rights violations, and abuses and crimes linked to mining," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said.
Miners, who work 12-hour shifts, are required to pay up to 20 percent of the money they earn to the criminal groups controlling the mines and up to 30 percent extra to the owner of the mill where rocks are crushed to extract gold, the report said.
It noted that migrant workers coming to the AMO and indigenous communities living in the area are severely affected by toxic mercury vapor, produced in the process of gold separation from other minerals.
Besides, a number of people interviewed said there had been a spike in prostitution, sexual exploitation and trafficking in mining areas, with children as young as nine working in the mines, the report added.
Bachelet called on Venezuela authorities to take immediate steps to end labor and sexual exploitation, human trafficking and human rights violations reported in the AMO, as well as investigate and punish those responsible for crimes.
The report was presented earlier on Wednesday to the 47-member UN Human Rights Council, of which Venezuela is a member.
