Some gold, bauxite mines in Venezuelan Amazon run by criminal gangs - U.N.
https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/some-gold-bauxite-mines-in-venezuelan-amazon-run-by-criminal-gangs-u.n.-2020-07-15
Quotes:
Nearly 150 men and women are reported to have died in or around the mines from March 2016 to 2020, with security forces implicated in half of the incidents, it said, adding that the government had not replied to its request for information.
"According to accounts received … bodies of miners are often thrown into old mining pits used as clandestine graves," it said.
The miners, who include young children, lack employment contracts and are exposed to mercury contamination and malaria, the report said.