Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Hundred of miners block Interstate 10 at El Callao claiming demands mocked by Mibam officials

VHeadline Venezuela News reports: More than a hundred miners blocked access to the township of El Callao for about 40 minutes in protest over what they claim to be mockery by the Basic Industries & Mining (Mibam) Ministry and other institutions specifically to a request for a meeting with Minister Rodolfo Sanz and Mirna Munoz, described as a local representative of Mibam.

One of the protesters, Mirna Munoz (no relation) said "we are some 350 miners who feel we have been excluded from all discussions by the Ministry ... they aren't taking us seriously and although they have announced that they are paying out a large amount of money, many of us in the actual mining community have not not receive anything." Another protestor, Zuleyda Bogarin said "we, the real miners did not get any payment, we were flouted."

The demonstrators are threatening to take their protest all the way to the Miraflores Presidential Palace in Caracas to let the President know their demands, including a complaint against a mining director who they accuse of having refused to take into account many of the miners who from a very early stage had occupied the COASI mining sector.

In a front page report in Tuesday editions of the local newspaper, Diario el Progreso, it is said that the protesters had removed the barrier across Intestate 10 after Mibam official Mirna Munoz agreed to talks towards answering the problem.