If the Boliviarian government has its way, one of the largest massacres of Venezuelan civilians in recent history will soon be swept under the rug, along with all the other disasters of the country. Indeed, the impending electrical blackout of the country—the shutting down of the Guri Dam’s hydroelectric system which provides some 60% of the nation’s energy is just days away—is only matched by the news blackout of the country’s catastrophic problems. Journalists and other media workers on March 30, 2016 protested all over Venezuela against censorship and the closing of independent daily newspapers. They point out that twenty-one independent, non-government dailies have closed down in Venezuela in the three years Maduro has been president. And when there is no independent press, critical information about the performance of the government, or massacres like the one in Tumeremo, Bolívar, Venezuela, are easily, and quickly, covered up. Those that dare report on the incident might well face severe recriminations such as those that came down on David Natera, publisher of the Correo de Caroni right after the paper began reporting on the Tumeremo massacre.
Residents of Tumeremo, in the area of Sifontes, near the contested zone bordering on Guyana, claim that 28 miners were murdered on the evening of March 4, 2016 by a gang led by “El Topo” (The Mole). “El Topo” is the nickname of Jamilton Andrés Ulloa Suárez, an Ecuadoran miner-turned-gangster who lives from “taxes” on local miners in the shadowy world of the gold mining, and in some cases evidently directly controls the mining itself.
The bodies of the victims were reportedly murdered execution-style, then brought through town, escorted by a a truck of the largest national police force, the Cuerpo de Investigaciones Científicas, Penales y Criminalísticas, CICPC, and then through three military checkpoints where there were reports of the presence of Bolivarian Intelligence (SEBIN) officers. According to some eyewitness reports, some of the bodies had been sawn up by chainsaws before being taken away for disposal in nearby mine shafts.