Indigenous leader who opposed illegal mining killed in Venezuela: NGO

AVenezuelanindigenousleaderwhowas an opponent of armed groups andillegalminingwas shot dead on Thursday in the Amazonas state capital, a non-governmental organisation and three people with knowledge of the case said.

Virgilio Trujillo Arana, a 38-year-oldindigenousUwottuja man, was a defender of theVenezuelan Amazon and had set up community groups to act as guardians of the Autana municipality of Amazonas.

"In life, Trujillo Arana stronglyopposedthe presence of foreign groups andillegalminingexploitation in theindigenousterritories of the Uwottuja people, in the Alto Guayapo area", indigenousrightsNGOA C Kape Kape wrote Friday on Twitter.

The Uwottuja community is made up of about 15,000 people.

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According to a report by Reuters, Kape Kape's director general Armando Obdola said that Trujillo had received threats for his activism, and that his case echoed the murders of environmental and social activists in neighbouring Colombia.

Communities from the town of Uwottuja announced last February their decision to defend their territory against a "silent invasion" by criminal groups, rejectingillegalminingexploitation as well as the use of their land for illicit activities.

"Virgilio was accompanying the Armed Forces as a territorial guard during operations into areas where there are irregular groups", said Obdola,whoadded that there are otherleaders in hidingwhofear for their lives.

The Ministry of Communication and Information and the Prosecutor's Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Non-governmental organisations and a United Nations report have denounced the presence of violent criminal groups that control gold mines in the jungle.

Mininghas been prohibited since 1989 inVenezuela's southern Amazonas state, which is not part of the so-called Arco Minero, a gold exploitation zone 111,000 square km created by decree in 2016 by the government of President Nicolas Maduro covering.

The Office of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet has asked the government to regulariseminingactivities and guarantee that they are carried out under international and environmental standards.

The Universidad de Los Andes Working Group onIndigenousAffairs called for an investigation into Trujillo's killing, and saidindigenousorganisations have so far not received responses from the Inter-America Commission on Human Rights regarding protection measures for other environmental defenders.

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