It was Monday afternoon. Cisneros Avenue in San Félix had its usual rhythm. Carts and trucks came and went. Informal vendors crossed from one side to another. Approximately 300 meters from the “poor people’s stop”, diagonal to the entrance to route II of “Vista al Sol”, the usual rhythm changed.
Pableysa Ostos // Correspondent lapatilla.com
Three military trucks came by in a convoy. Inside were military officials, police officers from Bolívar State Police (PEB) and members of the Bolivarian National Police (PNB). Some carried rifles in their hands, but most were hot and tired. In front of them, a “Hilux” SUV pickup, which carried a tarpaulin in the back that covered what it was carrying.
Its destination? South of Bolívar State. Hours later, its route and mission were confirmed, but it was not by an official source, but by the people, who once again denounced abuses, mistreatment and robberies by officials.
“On Monday, October 17th, about a thousand police officers and soldiers began to gather in the Guasipati Brigade in the south of Bolívar State, and then they entered the Sierra Imataca mine in the Sifontes Municipality,” explained one of the inhabitants of the mining town.
“They are running over the mining population, burning their personal belongings and work equipment. They are not even respecting the figure of the communal council, which is legally constituted.”
Evictions
Those affected indicated that the operations intensified on Wednesday, October 19th, and that the “commissions” asked the population and the “Imataca-La Sierra” rural community council to vacate the area. “All this applying coercive measures. Burning our belongings.”
The Agrominero Strategic Vanguard Movement pointed out that less than three months ago they were affected by a similar operation in which machinery was blown up, the aircraft runway was destroyed, and the houses and businesses of mining families were burned. Some 250 families were harmed.
“We request the cessation of military hostilities and invite the authorities to establish a dialogue table for peace and work in the mines. We are the ones who sustain the economy in the south of Bolívar State and make contributions to the national economy,” they pointed out.
Second Operation in Two Months
The operation referred to by the Agrominero Strategic Vanguard Movement was carried out between August 14th and 18th of this year. The military action lasted for more than three days in several mines in the Sifontes Municipality. It was called: Operation Autana 2022 and its supposed objective was “the location, neutralization and eradication of Armed Terrorist Drug Trafficking groups from Colombia (Tancol) and any element that intends to implant its culture of terror in the state, all this in compliance with the orders issued by the Constitutional President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.”
Although the operation was announced with great fanfare, it generated discomfort among the mining population, who denounced their forced displacement by the military, as well as the destruction of their homes, mining equipment, among other things.
Military sources stated that during Operation Autana they dismantled logistics facilities in which, according to informants, they exploited people and used forced labor. They also claimed that they had freed those who were kidnapped and destroyed clandestine airstrips. They pointed out that the “Tancol groups were forcing people to demonstrate against the FANB (National Bolivarian Armed Forces).”
But two months later, the mining population experienced another military incursion.
Zero Hour
This Friday, October 21th, the merchants of Tumeremo published a statement in which they reported that “in solidarity with our miners, we agreed to start zero hour.”
The document states that “we, merchants from Tumeremo, Sifontes from Bolívar State, in solidarity with our miners, which is the engine of our economy, not only of this Municipality but of the region, and the livelihood of thousands of families, we agreed from this Thursday, October 20th, to start a zero hour, as a peaceful protest against the abuses and outrages by Army officials against the mining population of Imataca.”
“We want to make known to the public opinion and our Sifontes Municipality, that the merchants of Tumeremo are hard-working, thriving people who put our grain of sand for the development of our society and our greatest desire is the peace and stability of our families,” they added.
They argued that “in the face of the serious outrages, abuses and complaints by the mining population of Imataca about alleged human rights violations, we stand in solidarity and begin this zero hour as a peaceful protest against these events that should not be the spirit of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB), whose main ethical and constitutional reason must be to defend its people and national sovereignty, not to run over and harass good people who have worked in mining since time immemorial.”
Until now, silence has taken over official sources, both military and regional. Meanwhile, the mining community of the Sifontes Municipality only asks for the cessation of military operations.