A group of scientists, members of the Latin America and Caribbean Section of the Society for Conservation Biology, denounced that although the Orinoco Mining Arc was initially designed to tighten government oversight over mineral mining and trading in the Guayana region of Venezuela, it has instead promoted the development of a complex network of intertwined legal and illegal activities throughout the country. The impact beyond its proposed borders is exemplified by the proliferation of mines inside protected areas and on top of
tepuys that are protected as natural monuments. In 2020, the
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights reported that workers in the Arco Minero were exposed to high levels of violence and exploitation by criminal groups that control the mines. They also said that illegal mining destroyed Indigenous peoples' habitat and threatened their sovereignty over their traditional territories. In 2020, the
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) reported that illegal mining involved about 500,000 workers in the Arco Minero. Many Indigenous people have been coerced into working for the mines by threat of violence, with violent repression of people who resist the mines. Nearly half of the miners are children. as mercury from mining has seeped into the soil and water systems, local indigenous populations have been exposed at dangerous levels. In the Caura river basin, a tributary to the Orinoco, 92 percent of indigenous women had elevated levels of mercury, which could damage the kidney and brain and impedes fetal development. Mining has created standing water and unsanitary conditions that result in a surge in malaria cases in the region. The increase in mining activity has also increased the size of the human population and the influence of non-indigenous culture in the region. Displacement of entire communities due to the degradation of public health services and increased security risks. == Trafficking ==