Venezuelan soldiers have evicted more than 1,200 people, many of them children, from an illegal gold mine that claimed 16 lives when it collapsed last month, the armed forces said Sunday.

The group included 131 minors evicted from the Bulla Loca mine in the Bolivar state in the Amazon region, general Domingo Hernandez Larez of the armed forces’ operational command said in a message on X. He did not provide a time frame.

Evictions were continuing, as was the dismantling of illegal mining structures erected in the La Paragua Forest Reserve, he added.

“Protecting nature is everyone’s task!” said Hernandez Larez.

The Bolivar region is rich in gold, diamonds, iron, bauxite, quartz and coltan. Aside from state mines, there is also a booming industry of illegal extraction.

Sixteen people died when the Bulla Loca open pit mine caved in last month. In December last year, 12 died when a mine in the Indigenous community of Ikabaru, in the same region, collapsed.

The NGO SOS Orinoco says at least 54 people died in 17 mining incidents in the Bolivar and Amazonas states between 2017 and 2022.

Activists denounce “ecocide” in the area and the exploitation of children who work long hours without protection.

Authorities say illegal miners fell and burn trees, contaminate water and engage in underground drilling that is damaging to the environment and harmful to Indigenous communities.

Last July, President Nicolas Maduro ordered the deployment of the armed forces to counter a scourge he said was “destroying the Amazon of South America… and Venezuela.”

Since then, some 14,000 illegal miners have been evicted from the Yapacana National Park in Amazon state, where vast areas were devastated by mining.

Rights activists have denounced excessive use of force during evictions of illegal mines where foreigners from Colombia, Brazil and Ecuador also operate.