Soldiers clashed with illegal miners in southern Venezuela on the weekend, killing 18 people in a region notorious for violence and gang rivalries, a lawmaker and local media said. Echoing that number, a local opposition lawmaker, Americo De Grazia, said relatives had described the victims as having bullets in the head. Clashes over illegal mines are common in the remote, mineral-rich area near the border of Guyana, with at least 17 people killed in a gang feud there in 2016. That year, President Nicolas Maduro declared the area a strategic priority, naming it the Mining Arc and declaring war on the hundreds of illegal miners from Venezuela and neighbouring Brazil who try to make a living there. Local media said the army captured guns and explosives during Saturday's operation.

Source: dna February 12, 2018 04:41 UTC