Seven years after the last meeting between the indigenous population and
missionaries working in Venezuela, the Department of Missions of the
Episcopal Conference of Venezuela, in collaboration with: the Pontifical
Mission Societies in Venezuela, the Indigenous Association AVEC, the
National Missionary Council (Comina) and the missionary congregations of
CONVER, have organized the sixth National Meeting of Indigenous and
Missionaries "ENIMIS" to be held in the city of Caracas, from 16 to 19
February 2017.According to the note sent to Fides by the PMS of Venezuela, the VI ENIMIS will be a space to reflect on the current situation of indigenous peoples and missionary activity of the Church, to meet the challenges that we have to engage in the growth of the indigenous communities and in the pastoral care of the Church.
For this reason, the meeting will focus on the prospects and challenges of indigenous cultures in Venezuela, as well as on the actions that the Church has developed in indigenous areas of the country, and the current situations that directly affect indigenous communities, such as the case of "Arco Minero" in Estado Bolivar and Estado Amazonas.
"Arco Minero" of Orinoco provides for an area of 114,000 square kilometers, in the southeast of Venezuela, especially in the state of Bolivar. It is a project that involves the exploitation of strategic minerals such as coal and manganese; metallic minerals such as gold, iron, bauxite, copper, chromium, magnesite and nickel; and non-metallic minerals such as diamond, phosphate, limestone, feldspar, dolomite, gypsum, kaolin, graphite and talc.
The Venezuelan government will promote an educational program with the miners of the area, not only to avoid the use of polluting substances, but to ensure that indigenous communities are able to obtain economic, technological and social benefits of the project.
That is why the information project plan will be issued in the language of the various ethnic groups in Venezuela.