VHeadline Venezuela News reports: Under rising criticism over the way he has handled his administration as regional Governor of Bolivar State. in southeastern Venzuela, former Venezuelan Guayana Corporation (CVG) president Francisco Rangel Gomez has announced that he will broker contacts with the central government in Caracas in an attempt to achieve solutions for some 6,000 impoverished miners who have been waiting interminably for payment of compensation for having given up illegal gold mining along the Rio Caroni.
Rangel Gomez has held a meeting with miners' representatives at Government House in Ciudad Bolivar who are insisting that the Basic Industries & Mining (Mibam) Ministry settle collective payments estimated at between Bs.F 10 billion ($4.7 billion) and Bs.F 15 billion ($7 billion) in accordance with an agreement reached more than two years ago when they were evicted from their mine workings.
Recently, a series of industrial actions has forced the closure of main thoroughfares and avenues in the State capital, Ciudad Bolivar, as disenfranchised miners from the southern mining districts made their protests known to local authorities.
Now headed for critical local and regional elections to be held nationwide on November 23, Rangel Gomez and Raul Leoni municipal Mayor, Yusleibi Ramirez have sought common cause under the political banner of President Hugo Chavez Frias' United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), Yusleibi Ramirez to belatedly recognize the miners' demands. Governor Rangel Gomez promised today, Monday, to intercede with President Hugo Chavez Frias -- who has just departed on a whirlwind international tour of China and Russia -- to have him facilitate payments previously agreed with Mibam officials.
Attending an election rally, Governor Rangel Gomez called on the miners to organize themselves into cooperatives and communal councils, the better to facilitate their integration into other income generating activities for their families and to stop destroying the environment as they have been doing with gold mining.
Among proposals, he suggested that, as well as major agricultural activity, the area has tourism potential where the area close to the Guri hydroelectric dam has beautiful jungles which can serve as a basis for eco- and adventure- tourism. "We are ready, as previously, to deliver production loans via the Bolivar State Debelopment Fund for the promotion of agriculture, fisheries and tourism."
On October 8, Rangel Gomez says he will inaugurate a new water treatment plant and deliver school supplies to children from indigenous and rural communities, as well as other initiatives to improve the quality of life for people who have previously been dependent on small-scale and artesanal gold mining.
VHeadline Venzuela News
vheadline@gmail.com
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