Published at: 08/05/2024 09:00 PM

• This is how Ovidio Abreu, president of the Venezuelan Mining Chamber (CMV), denounced them. Without a doubt, the Venezuelan island of Anakoko, of only 28 square kilometers (2,800 hectares), is a source of immense wealth in gold, diamonds, mica, tungsten, kaolin, manganese, radioactive minerals and wood, whose samples were exhibited at the headquarters of the CMV.
• The Venezuelan Mining Chamber (CMV) was founded by businessmen and artisans in gold and diamond mining on March 28, 1898, with the purpose of opposing the fraudulent Arbitral Award of Paris and for the best defense of our territorial wealth usurped by the English.
• Abreu recalled that, in 1909, Antonio Cattaneo, Inspector of the Eastern Borders, in full exercise of national sovereignty, raised the Venezuelan flag on Anakoko Island and set out to build a town whose inhabitants dedicated themselves to the exploitation of gold, diamonds, pendame, sarrapia and balata (latex).
• However, despite the complaints, the British continued to surreptitiously earn more than Bs. 50,000,000 (U$D 11,627,907, oo) annually, for gold and diamonds alone.
• The then president of the CMV stated that the British exchanged gold and diamonds for sugar and pence with the inhabitants of Anakoko Island.
• He added that Anglo-Saxon pirates turned the island into a stronghold for traffickers and smugglers to assault Venezuelan territory by carrying out illegal mining activities in the Cuyuní and Yuruari river deposits.
• Likewise, a certain Mr. McDonald, a UN mining expert and majority shareholder of the company Nueva Panama, extracted huge quantities of diamonds, manganese, bauxite, copper, radioactive minerals and fine wood from the area, under the permissive eyes of the Raúl Leoni government.
• He explained that the real name of this Venezuelan island is ANKOKO, an indigenous word for the Venamo tribes, whose nomadic customs are very distant from the extraction of precious minerals, destruction of forests and environmental degradation.
• On a map published on October 13, 1965 in the newspaper La Verdad, it was seen that in the territory claimed by Guayana Essequiba Venezolana, with an area of 159,500 square kilometers, 23 clandestine airstrips used for the extraction and illegal trafficking of:

1. 21,000 ounces of gold in Barima
2. 14,000 ounces of gold in the Cuyuní River
3. 28,000 ounces of gold in the Mazaruni River
4. 17,615 ounces of gold in the Puroni River
5. 100,000 ounces of gold in the Potaro River
6. A total of 180,614 ounces of gold annually extracted by England from our territory in 1965. This is equivalent to 5,779,680 grams (5,779.68 kilos = 5.7 tons).
7. That is 481 bars of pure high-grade gold, considering that Venezuelan gold is among the best in the world (18 carats).
8. At the date of publication of this cartography, which highlighted the mining, forestry, fluvial and fishing potential located in the area under review.
9. At that time, in Guyana Essequiba, there were 32 precarious settlements, with 100,000 inhabitants, mostly of Indian origin (culís), people of African descent and a significant representation of the ancient owners of that region: Venamos, Arawacos, Waraos, Arecunas, Kariñas, Akawaios, Patanoma, Wapichana, Pemones and Waiwai.

• Profile of a defender of the Essequibo Territory: Antonio Gastón Cattaneo Quirin (1880-1970) was a defender of Venezuelan territorial integrity:

1. Between 1914-1919, he evicted invading foreign colonies promoted by the British Empire from the territories of Yuruari and Gran Sabana on several occasions.
2. As Inspector General of the Eastern and Southern Borders of Bolivar State, Cattaneo personally reviewed the entire border line, having some encounters with English troops who he removed from Venezuelan territory.
3. In 1939, Cattaneo, after fully carrying out all the expeditions ordered to cross and defend our border lines, began training people to carry out the surprise occupation of the Upper and Middle Essequibo.
4. The officer's intentions reached English ears, who put pressure on President General.
5. López Contreras so that the jealous overseer of our territory could be removed from the borders. In effect, Cattaneo was reduced to the position of inspector of Banco Agrícola.
6. In 1947, after organizing and drafting the regulations of the National Border Guard and acting as the first commander of this comrade, he decided to retire from public life.

Mazo News Team