Post #1285

#News | The Venezuelan Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) have launched a large-scale operation to clear out the Yapacana National Park, in Amazonas state, from illegal mining and other criminal activities. According to official reports, almost 2,000 miners have been evicted since last month from the Yapacana area under “Operation Autana 2023.” On Monday, the armed forces seized equipment and material such as engines, fuel, 195 motor pumps, 18 electric generators, and destroyed 130 improvised housing and storage structures. "They [the illegal miners] have been evicted voluntarily and their wellbeing attended to. They understood that nothing will prevail over environmental rights," FANB General Domingo Hernández Lárez told the press. On June 30, 800 illegal miners were evicted from the "Mina Nueva" sector where the FANB dismantled four camps with mining equipment, mercury, and explosives. Only a week prior, another camp was destroyed near the area containing almost three kilos of liquid mercury and 292,000 Colombian pesos. Authorities also arrested 25-year-old Wilfredo Alexánder Yaramare Esteves over alleged links to criminal organizations based in Inírida, Colombia. “Operation Autana 2023” was launched following Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s order to root out illegal mining from national parks in the Venezuelan Amazon region, which expands across the Amazonas, Bolívar, and Delta Amacuro states, south of the country. https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15802