The murder of five Brazilian miners on the border with Venezuela could increase regional tensions between the two countries. The crime reportedly occurred on Sunday, August 7, and the bodies-four miners and a woman, allegedly the local cook, were taken to forensic medicine in Brasilia on Wednesday (10).
Witness statements from the scene indicate that a group of Venezuelan National Guard soldiers was responsible for the crime.
The crime occurred in the Constitución sector, in Cerro Delgado Chalbaud, in the municipality of Alto Orinoco in Amazonas, on the border between Brazil and Venezuela.
In a video published on social networks, a Venezuelan native can be heard accusing Venezuelan officials of the crime: “Here are the bullets, I have the bullet cartridges.
The military killed them here in Chalbaud,” the indigenous man said while showing the victims’ bodies. The Brazilian newspaper Amazônia Real confirmed that those killed worked in the Taboca mine, an illegal gold mine.
So far, the Venezuelan authorities have not issued any official statements. However, this is not the first time conflicts have occurred in the border areas between the indigenous population, the Venezuelan military, and Brazilian miners or garimpeiros.