The Bolivarian National Armed Force (FANB) confirmed this Thursday that two people were killed and six others were injured, three soldiers among them, during the confrontation between security forces and illegal miners in Yapacana Hill, in the state. Amazonas in the South of that country.
In a statement, the institution explained that, on Wednesday, about “400 troops evicted, dismantled and destroyed more than 500 clandestine structures used for illegal mining” in a sector of the entity, on the border of Colombia and Brazil.
“At the time of boarding, when all the people who were there were ordered to peacefully leave the sector, a group of miners unexpectedly and planned attacked the officers with knives and weapons,” said Text fanb.
This action is “created two people were killed and three were injured as well as three military personnel were also injured,” the letter continued, in which no further information was given about those who lost their lives, although several NGOs claimed that they were both two men: one from Amazonas and the other from the state of BolÃvar. .
The statement, signed by Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López, said that all the injured “were given the appropriate medical care by the military and public health network.”
Likewise, the Government reported that President Nicolás Maduro “requested the immediate action of the Public Ministry (Prosecutor’s Office), to deepen the corresponding investigations.”
What Fanb said about illegal mining
Since July 1, Fanb has expelled “more than 12,000 people” from Amazonas, identified as illegal miners, “in an irreproachable show, strictly framed by the legal system and, more to all, with deep respect for human rights,” the organization emphasized. institution.
Behind the illegal extraction of minerals, added the Defense portfolio, “an untold number of crimes have been created” such as “forced prostitution, human trafficking, smuggling and environmental depredation”, crimes that the Executive held responsible ” Colombian terrorists “who, he insisted, will continue to “fight until their total expulsion” from Venezuela.
This is the first time that Fanb reports an act of violence during the evictions in the Amazon, an operation ordered by Maduro that seeks to “cleanse” this region and then start a plan to recover the environment, mainly due to the use of mercury in this territory. ..
This is the full text of the statement:
