Ven. Lawmakers Warn the Amazon Is under Increasing Threat
Havana, Feb 18. – The Amazon, the largest forest in the world with 20 percent of the planet''s drinking water, is growing peril due to destruction of its environment and U.S. plans, Venezuelan lawmakers warned.
Eddy Gomez Abreu, president of the Amazon Parliament, calls for awareness of both dangers, since they continue without any government or social control.
The developed countries have set their eyes on the water of the Amazon, Orinoco and Guarani and the mineral wealth (gold, titanium, plutonium and uranium) and the great oil reserves in the area, said the politician, warning of Washinton�s plans.
The military presence of the United States in the triple border, shared by Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, as well as Aruba, Colombia, Trinidad and Tobago, is evidence of that, he said.
Such policy responds -he added- to Washington's interest of dominating the area that has a vast biodiversity wealth, water and minerals. This explains the U.S. government's conflicts with progressive governments of South America.
Gomez Abreu said that those interests have found the support of many non governmental organizations (NGOs).
"More than 600 NGOs financed and promoted by the West and very especially the United States act in the Amazon and many work undermining the revolutionary processes in the region," he warned.
Destruction of lands, excessive extraction of natural resources and loss of flora and fauna, are making way in the Amazon without excluding human damages, he said.
About a million persons, mostly indigenous live there with effects on their health by drinking mercury contaminated water and other residual products as a result of mining, he explained.
Gomez Abreu is in Havana to present his book to the 2011 International Book Fair, "SOS Amazon" a work of the Prensa Latina News Agency with important information on the subject.(Prensa Latina)
