Amazonian Indigenous Peoples oppose government mining expansion plans

In a public statement the indigenous organisation COIAM, representing all the most active indigenous peoples' organisations in the Venezuelan Amazon, have expressed their opposition to government negotiations with foreign companies to open up their ancestral territories to mining without consultation or sharing of information. There are especially concerned by the advanced plans of a Chinese Corporation named as Citic Group with prospecting camps in a number of strategic locations in the indigenous peoples' heartlands. They demand recognition of their territorial rights, open consultations and a halt to mining.

Read COIAM's statement (in Spanish only) here.