While details are still emerging, it appears that as many as 80 Yanomami community members in the Amazon in Venezuela have been massacred by illegal gold miners. According to a submission to prosecutors this week in Puerto Ayacucho, the massacre occurred in early July. The national prosecutor’s office has appointed two officials to lead investigations, and the Venezuelan military has conducted interviews with witnesses.
Survival International’s Director, Stephen Corry, demanded that Amazonian governments “stop the rampant illegal mining, logging and settlement in indigenous territories.”
Read more from the New York Times here and from the BBC here.
