CARACAS, (Reuters) – Seventeen miners murdered near a gold deposit were mainly shot in the head, and four suspects have been arrested so far in a case that has shocked Venezuela, the chief state prosecutor said yesterday.
The killings have shone a light on long-running gang wars in the vast and remote jungle area near the borders of Guyana and Brazil that is littered with illegal mines.
President Nicolas Maduro’s government has blamed local gangs, with the involvement of foreign paramilitaries, while the opposition has accused local security forces of complicity.
The miners disappeared on March 4, prompting days of protests by relatives and families in Tumeremo town, before their bodies were discovered this week in a mass grave.
“They were all executed with guns … 16 in the head and one in the thorax,” chief prosecutor Luisa Ortega told reporters.
