What lies beyond the main gate at the Las Cristinas gold mine in southern Bolivar State?

What lies beyond the main gate at the Las Cristinas gold mine in southern Bolivar State?

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Seen from a helicopter hovering barely 200 meters above the main gate at the Las Cristinas gold mine in southern Bolivar State...

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But, beyond the gates (top left in our picture, above ) lies a wasteland which has been created through decades of environmental decay as illegal garimpieros (indigenous miners) work their way through millions of tonnnes of sub-soil searching for occasional nuggets of gold, but leaving behind them a path of destruction with huge swates of virgin rainforest cut down or burned to make way for high-powered water pumps to hose down (see center below) the sub soil unimpeded by law enforcement and/or mining company guards.

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Behind them, the illegal garimpieros leave a trail of destruction with polluted lakes and pools of water in which nothing can grow. Dead trees stand, stripped forlorn (below), in what resembles a World War 1 battlefield ... a stark reminder of the fact that the territory is roughly the size of Belgium (which has since recovered somewhat from the Battle of the Somme).

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