Rights group says criminals terrorizing miners in Venezuela

Criminal groups that run gold mines in the south of Venezuela have mutilated miners accused of stealing, extorted business owners and forced young children to work without security equipment as they tighten their grip on a region that is rich in minerals, Human Rights Watch said in a report published on Tuesday. The watchdog group interviewed more than 30 mine workers, journalists and local experts who said that authorities in Venezuela are turning a blind eye to the abuses and in some occasions collaborating with criminal groups and with Colombian rebels who control mines in Venezuela's Bolivar state. Venezuela’s socialist government increasingly has relied on gold mined in Bolivar state to cover its expenditures and get around U.S. sanctions on its oil industry.

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