There are 198 indigenous communities in Bolívar state. And their people, mostly small scale farmers, have been drawn to give up their traditional ways of life to enter the Mining Arc – largely prompted by Venezuela’s astonishing inflation rate (likely to exceed 2,700 percent for 2017), as well as by the rapidly escalating local cost of living which came along with the mining bonanza. Men, of course, work the gold, coltan and diamond claims, but indigenous women also toil in the mines and around them, preparing and selling food, cleaning accommodations and working as prostitutes.

“We should dedicate more time to things that are not related to mining, but you see that members of the community spend the whole year in the mines,” says Brian Clark. He is an indigenous leader in Jobochirima, a community in the proximity of Las Claritas. Jobochirima has seen a major drain of farmers away from croplands into illegal mines.

Importantly, indigenous communities within the Arco Minero have been given no say in the development of mining in their region. They’ve not been consulted or given the right to free, prior and informed consent for mining projects that impact their territories, as required by the International Labour Organization’s 169 Convention, an agreement to which Venezuela is a party.

“The biggest danger is that the [government will] appropriate the indigenous leadership,” Luzardo says. “This is like [what was] done in the [20th Century] African conquest with the local elites; like Mugabe, this is Mugabismo!” in Zimbabwe, according to Luzardo, the state “domesticated indigenous leaders” in order to clear the way for legal and illegal mining projects. Likewise in Venezuela, when indigenous leaders don’t work with the state, there is always the threat of coercion, as provided by a range of military forces which are omnipresent in the Mining Arc today.

“The presence of the army here is not for the people. It’s for their [the state’s and military’s] own benefit,” says Clark.

The military, he explains, is heavily involved in overseeing many mines, and it also does most of the work involved in smuggling Venezuelan gold abroad. This state of affairs can lead to some strange scenes in and around Las Claritas, where armed gangs coexist with the army (which patrols in its military vehicles), and the National Guard and intelligence services (which staff the region’s many roadblocks). Guns are everywhere, and violence always a risk.