It was once the inspiration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s ‘The Lost World’, an otherworldly region of grassy plains and table-topped mountains known as tepuis, or ‘Houses of the Gods’.

A remote area deep in the Venezuelan south close to the border with Brazil, the Gran Sabana was home only to the indigenous Pemon tribe and a handful of adventurous travellers. And, crucially, vast seams of one of the world's biggest reserves of gold.

Now, those underground riches are fuelling a deadly conflict that could determine the course of the country’s crisis. Simmering for years, it erupted into the international consciousness when, the day before the attempted entry of humanitarian aid from Colombia and Brazil, security forces clashed with Pemon locals trying to stop them from blocking the border.

A Pemon woman was shot dead, at least a dozen were hospitalised. The next day, the border town of Santa Elena de Uairén became a war zone, its streets filled with tanks, gunfire and tear gas. The Pemon mayor of the Gran Sabana, Emilio Gonzalez, was forced to flee to Brazil.

Largely portrayed as a flashpoint in the aid showdown, locals and experts told The Telegraph the reality is far different. Instead, it is the culmination of a growing territorial standoff between Venezuelan forces and associated armed groups bent on exploiting the area's gold mines and the Pemon who stand in their way.