Nicolás Maduro and Venezuela's 'bloody' gold 7:55
(CNN) - Venezuelan mining areas are "trapped in a context of labor exploitation and high levels of violence by criminal groups," according to a report released Wednesday by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The report states that there is a general lack of access to justice in the mines, since local criminal groups, known as "unions", control much of the mining operation in the Venezuelan region of the Orinoco Mining Arc.
Criminal groups, according to the report, "determine who enters and leaves the area, impose rules, impose severe penalties on those who break them, and obtain economic benefits from all activities within the mining area, including through extortion in exchange for protection. "
CNN traveled to the Orinoco Mining Arc in 2019 and saw first-hand the conditions in which miners are forced to work. The miners who spoke on the condition that CNN protect their identity revealed the brutal and violent practices used by criminal groups in the country in the area to maintain control over the mines and the people who work in them, all with the consent of the local police and military commands.
- READ HERE THE COMPLETE INVESTIGATION: "A trail of 'bloody gold' leads to the government of Venezuela"
The CNN investigation was able to establish a link between violence and exploitation, related to mining activities in the Orinoco Mining Arc, and the regime of the besieged President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas.
Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world, but gold is increasingly its most important source. In Caracas, it allows Maduro to allegedly buy the military's allegiance to his conflicted government.
The Orinoco Mining Arch is a vast subtropical region on the southern bank of the Orinoco River in Bolívar State. The embattled President Nicolás Maduro said that the extraction of gold in the Arco Minero would lead the recovery of Venezuela.
How is illegal gold coming out of Venezuela trafficked? 5:24According to a 2019 International Crisis Group report, there are an estimated 300,000 miners working across the region. The number of workers has increased dramatically in recent years as the economic crisis in Venezuela has left a "lack of job opportunities in Venezuela," according to a UN statement released around the report.
"Authorities should take immediate steps to end labor and sexual exploitation, child labor and human trafficking, and should dismantle criminal groups that control mining activities," said the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. , Michelle Bachelet.
"They must also investigate, prosecute and punish those responsible for human rights violations, abuses and crimes," added Bachelet.
- With information from Claudia Rebaza, Vasco Cotovio, Isa Soares in London. Alert written by Maija Ehlinger in Atlanta.
Mining in Venezuela Gold Venezuela
