VHeadline Venezuela News reports: Striking gold miners have again occupied the regional offices of the Basic Industries & Mining (Mibam) Ministry in Ciudad Bolivar protesting the non-payment of promised humanitarian aid which has not yet materialized. The mine workers says they are tired of unfulfilled promises and simply want Mibam Minister Rodolfo Sanz to deal with the immediate issues which are causing concern among the already critically poor inhabitants of southern Bolivar State.
Miners spokesman, Alfredo Villanueva says Sanz' deliberate lack of response has forced the miners to take strike action because they have "had enough of deceit and lies."
Villanueva insists that Mibam's Rodolfo Sanz has "refused to show his face to address this situation, which has continued for two years during which not a cent of the promised aid has ever reached us!"
"Each week we only get the news that the payment is suspended ... again" said Villanueva. He inssists that he and his fwellow miners are supportive of President HUgo Chavez' social revolution ... "but this is NOT revolution, when we are deceived and humiliated in this way."
"When the President (Chavez) speaks (denigratingly) about us as 'pitiyanquis' (little yankees i.e. pretentious opportunists) he cannot imagine being in our circumstances, because the first 'pitiyanquis' are, in fact, the minister and his people who deny us our rights."
In the name of the mine workers, Villanueva says "we are demanding that a meeting with responsible government officials ... we have made clear it clear that we will continue with our industrial actions and the indefinite occupation of the Mibam offices until such time as Mibam Minister Rodolfo Sanz shows his face and gives us what is already owed to us ... we will not be swayed!"
The sad reality for traditional mine workers in the Guayana region is mirrored in the experiences of many people who, for years have slaved in the mining industry and are now left in abject poverty with nary a cent to survive and still waiting for payments promised more than two years ago which on the face of it they seen now only as continuing lies and deceit. "Fathers and mothers have had to stop sending their children to college because they have neither food or the means to buy uniforms ... we are also human beings!"
"Four thousand miners' votes must also count for something in the elections on November 23!"
Miners's wife Eunice Bolivar had hoped for the agreed payment to be made to her husband and insists that it is NOT charity they are asking for but that they expect their claim to be treated with respect and that they should not continue to be subjected to harassment, humiliation and ridicule for claiming their right from those who have the responsibility ... "they need to see the consequences of their lack of action as it affects the miners ... we can not do anything because criminals have taken over, we have to get to the top executive otherwise they (corrupt subordinates) will kill us."
There is general unease among the mining population over the incredibly bad way they have been treated by those who have power over them in the region.
"The fact of the matter is that the mines are not the exclusive property of the government ... they are the sovereign property of all the people of Venezuela!"
VHeadline Venezuela News
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