Minerven promotes illegal mining and challenges MinAmbiente
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Published at 08:15 AM on June 19, 2009 | Fifth Day



An army of illegal miners under the protection of authorities Minerven, hence the uncontrolled extraction of gold material in areas that do not have proper environmental permits, in an open challenge to the Ministry of Environment officials assigned to Minerven will be noted on alleged threats of invasion mining firms in southern Bolivar in order to compel them to accept conditions and fees in exchange for delivery or confirmation of mining concessions. Learn the secret negotiations that took place in a European city in which concessions were offered in exchange for cash benefits Get the mysterious case of several kilos of gold worth hundreds of thousands of dollars allegedly lost to the reserves of the Hecla company, when it passed under control Minerven.

The mine plan currently Minerven forward to achieving a target of 8 tons of gold at the end of 2009-a goal that is unattainable, according to experts, could bring more problems than benefits, and is emphasizing the use of high Officials of the State machinery of all kinds of pressure, including overtly illegal actions, to promote their interests and maximize their personal benefits.
On the one hand, Minerven is using an army of illegal miners to process large quantities of gold material, in violation of important laws that are darkened state mining activity and risk of loss generating assets.
But on the other hand, the exploitation of gold material is being carried out in ecologically fragile areas and without any required environmental permits, in an open challenge to the recommendations and regulations established by the Ministry of Environment and publicly defended by the president Hugo Chávez .
According to documents and intelligence reports, besides senior officials of the state mining are using the case to suspend or terminate contracts and concessions for mining, to renegotiate these contracts with these companies or others interested revoked in exchange by juicy commissions.
In the eye of the storm of accusations is Minerven president Luis Herrera, a senior official who was linked to attempted invasion of mining areas in the past, and recently negotiated the allocation of a major concession to gold in a Russian group Paris.
Herrera's strategy could expand the environmental devastation of hundreds of hectares in the heart of gold named Tumeremo 88-kilometer, due to the use of illegal miners in the indiscriminate and uncontrolled exploitation of gold material, and deserves action by the Attorney General to establish responsibilities for environmental crimes.
Penalists According to experts, the commission of these crimes could lead to the prosecution of senior officials involved in illegal activities with a high bias for the Venezuelan state. "
The letter in evidence a letter dated May 27, 2009, Francisco Hernandez, manager of small-scale mining of the CVG and considered reliable staff of Luis Herrera, ordered a junior engineer named Giovanni Mejías coordinate any "support" and "logistics" to extract gold material on land within the Las Cristinas project (PLC), under threat of losing their jobs.
Hernandez noted that the order had come from a higher level, citing the name of José Antonio Urbina, current manager for the Coordination of Small Mining CVG, another of the close associates of Herrera in the state-owned corporation, and continues its guidelines "to the letter."
Hernandez ordered the engineer to carry out "all the logistics and coordination with the business operator" (the Canadian Crystallex currently receiving the award and a member of the CVG in the proposed joint operation), with the caveat that "the omission of This (order) will result in sanctions irreversibly to their current contract. "
Because the collection of material for gold Minerven president used illegal miners, and the lack of environmental permits required for any type of mineral extraction with a high content of gold, the order processing queue incurs an open gold violation of several laws.
According to intelligence sources, the letter was sent shortly after a committee of the National Guard troops restraining Herrera join a fleet of more than a dozen trucks loaded with Minerven technical staff on the premises of the Las Cristinas concession with the aim of collecting gold tails previously extracted by a number of illegal miners working under the orders of Herrera in the area.
According to the report of the National Guard contingent to access areas of the Las Cristinas concession was precluded "because of the legal prohibition of mining on those lands that weighs about the lack of permits from the Ministry of Environment."
The National Guard did not give in to the pressures of the Herrera.
From the legal point of view, the letter ordering the mine threat in Las Cristinas "is the clearest indication so far of the illegality of the actions of Luis Herrera by men of his confidence," said the report.
Truths and lies within the National Mining Plan Another aspect that is raising alarms officials in various sectors, is the true scope that has the Mining Plan Nacional (PMN).
The plan is to develop the mine in an organized fashion in each of its lines within the jurisdiction of the state of Bolívar, in order to promote the establishment of joint ventures with investors who can pay in advance a percentage of future profits at a time to start operations with a state share of 51 percent.
Another goal is to force companies to commit to a long-term mine production viable and environmentally sustainable, and avoid the most speculative financial management activities at the international mining stock.
At the same time the plan will allocate up to 2 percent of their profits for social benefit, to create a fund to raise the quality of life in areas impacted by mining activities.
However, a number of factors are undermining the original goals of the plan, including the ambitions of government officials who seek to "own profit," intelligence reports indicated.
"The deepening of the research shows that while this scheme was designed to combat the private interests and the internal mafias, by officials who engage in acts of corruption, that purpose has been hampered because although I MIBAM reversed 107 contracts miners, it was detected that is being presented false figures to the president and the president of the Corporación Venezolana de Guayana (CVG), "a paper analyzing intelligence.
For example, according to projections Minerven, by the end of 2009 gold production will reach 8 tons, some 2.400 billion dollars, a goal that is impossible without the participation of major mining corporations that are present in southern Bolivar state , which is awaiting the environmental permits to start its work.
"They are pointing out that the PMN may be a point to support the balance of payments golpeda hard by falling oil prices, when actually it is not."
The letter stated that "under the philosophy that the CVG will use materials such as Victoria Tomi mines and enterprises that will employ as Remevin material for processing gold, with the contribution of small-scale miners who will be part of the" not round " there to be processed directly, Luis Herrera sold the idea to produce eight tons Minerven estimated at year-end 2009. "
Herrera began to appoint officials to manufacture off reports concluded his idea, to uphold the disqualification of some companies applying the motto of the enemy government, while promoting others, becoming lobbyist under the premise that acts directly under the instructions of the President and Rodolfo Sanz.
Moreover, the recent decision of the Central Bank of Venezuela, where all the gold produced in the Venezuelan territory to be sold in a proportion of 70 percent to the issuing agency, and the rest for export, 'away from the mafia to control internal and corruption, has led to a centralization of profits in the hands of private individuals and companies that are listed in Annex 4, paragraph 4, namely 4.1.
Intelligence agents have collected information from businesses that have received offers of staff, who have assured that they are able to ensure the delivery of concessions in exchange for benefits. "
License to invade reports make clear that the group led by Herrera presents its best letter assuring potential "clients" that account "with the direct authorization of the CVG to order invasion of specific mining areas.
The next step is to start the operation and use of queues in material gold mining areas, the use of illegal mining, as has been demonstrated in areas such as tin, Bizcaitarra, Apanao, Supamo, Papapoy, among others. "
The intelligence committee found that the extraction of the material is made without the respective permit, which contradicts the position it holds the Ministry of Environment to maintain the ecological balance and achieve the government objective, which is contrary to the position of Herrera, "He who has the support of managers CVG that you trust."
According to analysts, "is not compatible with our view that if the National Executive in the person of the citizen President of the Republic has shown a clear interest in defending the global ecosystem and Venezuela and even activated the Theater of Operations No. 5 to address, inter alia to illegal mining, is now seeking to allow de facto government officials to exploit areas where so far no permission has been granted for the allocation of natural resources in areas that are cited in the report submitted to the study, under the premise of social commitment. "
In conclusion, he noted the extensive writing activities conducted under the approval of Minerven and its president, would be unlawful without compliance with regulations that govern, among them that gives the Department of Environment, emphasizing that allowed the continuation of Such activities would not only colluded with the administrative law previously exposed, but the occurrence of criminal offenses that fall within the jurisdiction of the Public Ministry, with the aggravating circumstance that would put the country in a position deteriorated environmentalist. "
According to the legal experts, the illegal exploitation of gold material is not only considered a criminal offense in itself, but also generates a chain of responsibilities involving all concerned in the commission of illegal since the beginning of the extraction to the final production.
"Mining is not permitted in some cases as a criminal offense under the Penal Law of the Environment and the Organic Law against Organized Crime," says Dr. Luis Alfonso Castillo, known jurist and expert in the field.
According to Castillo, "looks to view any illegal attempt to absolve the responsibility of any person or institution that plunders the habitat and the precious material obtained under the assumption that the state pays the tax, when you do not have permits from the respective Ministries of Environment and Basic Industries and Mining.
Additionally, it is considered illegal to receive payment for the material, it would receive a payment for something improper, the lawyer explained.
Castillo remarked that "it would not be legally permissible activity that seeks to prosecute officials of the miners that the material obtained in an illegal manner, because apart from being involved in covering up the figure of its authors, would be in the form of Building Things Coming Crime under Article 470 of the Penal Code, and administrative acts which are vitiated by the occurrence of absolute invalidity pursuant to Article 25 of the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, in addition to incurring civil liability or civil servants who order or carry out, as incur criminal liability, civil or administrative action, as appropriate, without being used as excuses superior orders. "
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The secrets of an official: Engineer Luis Herrera was directly related to the violent events in 2005 in the closure of the Core 10 and other offenses. By participating in these events is currently prosecuted Charles Chancellor, former mayor of the municipality Sifontes.
According to a report by the Inspectorate of the Armed Forces in 2005, Chancellor Herrera used in the Plan Ortegano (conceived by former deputy Ortegano Orlando), whose central objective was to establish a national mining company, to concentrate all mining concessions in axis Tumeremo Kilometer-88 to handle conveniently.
The plan included a joint strategy with members of the Mission Piar, par aupar violent acts aimed at the invasion of mining concessions, including the most coveted of Las Cristinas, which contains reserves of about 21 million ounce gold tested, under the responsibility of Crystallex, a Canadian transnational. By then President Chavez was unveiled the plan, which caused the deactivation of the purpose and output Ortegano, who takes refuge in PDVSA and the rest of the invaders.
After a period in which they had "neutralized", Herrera took the arrival of the minister Rodolfo Sanz to convince him of the golden dream of reviving the plan Ortegano again, thus began a new phase of attempted control of mining concessions using all available means, including illegal ones, to achieve its primary purpose to control the mining in Bolivar and use it to benefit its own interests.
But all things did not go in your favor.
Last year, a fact which is still being investigated, there was a case of loss of several kilograms of gold for Hecla and its signature later smuggled into Colombia. According to his version, the criminals attacked and stole the gold that was carrying his wife in a car with the driver as an officer.
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Russians in Paris: Less than a month ago, a group of senior officials traveled discreetly on a flight "subsidized with funds from the Venezuelan state to Paris in France.
The purpose of the visit was a secret meeting to seal an important business proposal, linked to mining in Venezuela.
In the French capital, officials met with representatives of a major Russian mining group, who attended the event in hopes of cementing its presence in the mining area.
The meeting was attended in addition to Luis Herrera, a senior ministry officials and a group of attendees, the sources indicated.