CARACAS, Feb 7 (NNN-XINHUA) — Six makeshift mining camps set up by illegal miners and other illegal facilities have been destroyed in Venezuela’s southern state of Amazonas in an operation to protect the local environment, said the country’s Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB).
President Nicolas Maduro on Monday launched Operation “Neblina 2024” for the protection of the Amazon region, and the facilities destroyed were used “to prey on and contaminate the environment,” head of the army’s Strategic Operational Command Domingo Hernandez Larez said in a post on social media.
Besides the mining camps, the army also destroyed eight “illegal rafts” used by the “criminal groups” along the banks of the Cunucunuma River in Duida-Marahuaca National Park, he said.
The Venezuelan government will not tolerate the existence of illegal groups in Venezuelan territory “nor the indiscriminate and arbitrary depredation of the environment,” said the officer. — NNN-XINHUA
