Venezuela’s Indigenous Warao Press-Ganged into Guyana’s Illegal Gold Mines

Some of them were there for three weeks before being able to escape with the help of local priests and return to Venezuela, where they raised the alert.The Warao were reportedly rounded up in the Guyanese community of Murako near the Venezuelan border in May and taken to work in illegal mines in the area of Kumaka, a northern coastal community, Kapé Kapé reported.

“They were supposed to go work as vegetable pickers in the countryside, but that wasn’t the case.

Still, it appears Warao community members in Venezuela only began moving en masse across the border in December 2020, Kapé Kapé staff told InSight Crime, having usually preferred Brazil or Trinidad and Tobago.Since then, migrants have been targeted by several opportunistic and criminal schemes.

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