Venezuelan Amazon Reforestation Plan Begins

On Thursday night, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro ordered his government team and the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) to start implementing a Special Plan for Reforestation and Recovery of Balance in the Venezuelan Amazon.

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The President referred to the reforestation and total recovery of the Yapacana National Park, located in the state of Amazonas, in the south of Venezuela. 

The so-called "Operation Autana 2023," designed to eradicate illegal mining, must now enter its third phase called: Reforestation and permanent establishment of the Venezuelan State, of the FANB to protect Amazonas, Maduro said. 

This comes after having evicted more than 14,000 illegal miners from the area in a military deployment of several weeks that was successfully carried out in order to stop many illegal mining activities. 

The tweet reads, "We are going to a new phase of liberation of all the territory in the Amazon. We must move forward with the Special Plan for Reforestation, Afforestation and Recovery of the balances together with the biologists and scientists of the country, to reverse the damage and destruction done by criminal gangs against our sacred forest."

The Venezuelan president ordered the Vice-President, Delcy Rodríguez, "to lead a process of reforestation, afforestation and recovery of environmental balances; for which the Council of Vice-Presidents and the Presidential Council for Science, Technology and Innovation must be summoned."

According to the president, a team of scientists and experts of the highest level and from different disciplines will work in the area to achieve its reforestation and the recovery of the environment.

On the occasion, Maduro congratulated the thousands of military personnel who participated in the successful deployment. He ordered his country's armed forces to confront with determination any vestige of illegal mining in the territory, as well as the destruction of supplies, materials, objects or equipment that are intended to be used to depredate the environment.

In the operations, 51 members of criminal gangs were captured, more than 14,000 illegal miners were evicted, 11 rafts, 350 power plants, 1,675 motor pumps, 49 crushing mills and 284 suction turbines were seized, among other implements.