A Venezuelan indigenous leader who was an opponent of armed groups and illegal mining has been shot dead in the capital of the state of Amazonas, said a non-governmental organization and three people with knowledge of the case.
Virgilio Trujillo Arana, a 38-year-old Uwottuja native, was an advocate of the Venezuelan Amazon and had created community groups to act as guardians of the Autana municipality of Amazonas.
Arana was shot three times in the head by a gunman who fled to a vehicle waiting for him in Thursday’s attack on the city of Puerto Ayacucho. He had reportedly received threats related to his job.
“In life, Trujillo Arana strongly opposed the presence of foreign groups and illegal mining in the indigenous territories of the Uwottuja village, in the Alto Guayapo area,” wrote the indigenous rights NGO AC Kape Get on Twitter.
The Uwottuja community is made up of about 15,000 people.
Non-governmental organizations and a United Nations report have denounced the presence of violent criminal groups that control gold mines in the jungle.
The Ministry of Communication and Information and the prosecution did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Communities in the town of Uwottuja announced last February their decision to defend their territory against a “silent invasion” of criminal groups, rejecting illegal mining as well as the use of their land for illicit activities.
Mining has been banned since 1989 in the state of Amazonas, in the south of Venezuela, which is not part of the so-called Mining Arc, or Mining Arc, a gold mining area of 111,000 km² created by decree l 2016 by the government of President Nicolás Maduro.
The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, has called on the government to regularize mining activities and ensure that they are carried out under international and environmental standards.