Mine gold or go hungry in Venezuela? Indigenous groups struggle for balance.

In the middle of the jungle in southern Venezuela, a 60-foot-wide hole oozes brown, polluted water. Sandy earth is piled around the perimeter of this abandoned, informal gold mine, a permanent blemish on the once-wild land.

Bolívar state is bursting with biodiversity, breathtaking waterfalls, jungles, and tabletop mountains, known as tepuis. But, mining that can clear and destroy vast swaths of land has become an important source of income among the nearly 200 Indigenous communities that live here, especially since the breakdown of Venezuela’s oil industry accelerated in 2014. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated an already perilous economic situation, when what little remained of tourism and government social services all but evaporated.

Now, sights like large semicircles carved deep into the jungle floor and buzzing with untrained workers are more common. As Venezuela’s economic unraveling eviscerated incomes and