308
J.E. Conde . G. Rodriguez
intervention probably would unbalance the water budget and hinder migrations of
fishes. In Colombia, as well as in Venezuela, the Escalante river goes through extense
rangelands where livestock is raised, while in its uplands there are tracts exploited by
itinerant croppers. The Zulia river, a tributary of the Catatumbo river, traverses, in its
medium and upper reaches, extensive croplands in Colombian country. The area where
the more intense agricultural development unfolds is the so-called Distrito de Riego
Rio Zulia - HIMAT (Norte de Santander Departament, Colombia), which spreads
throughout 175 km 2 • To the pollution with an agricultural origin, the large input of industrial and domestic wastes from the city of Cucuta and other nearby populations to
the Catatumbo basin should be added.
Based on these facts, it is easy to realize that the success of an ICZM programme for
the shorelands of the Maracaibo System will strongly depend on the cooperation of
the Colombian government. The Republic of Venezuela has attempted to face this situation by enacting a commission for management of common basins. But trouble would
not end at this level. In what might be viewed as a bizarre turn, recently the powerful
Colombian guerrilla (ELN) stated its environmental awareness through one of its adherents' declarations to the Venezuelan national press (Zambrano 1997). According to
this spokesman, all the military actions (mostly oil pipeline blastings) of the partisans
in the basins have been environmentally sound. He also stated a deep concern for deforestations, oil spills and mining concessions to multinationals.
16.11
The Nissos Amorgos Oil Spill
The greatest concern over the oil spill came from artisanal fishermen, who have a high
lobbying capacity through a strong union, FETRAPESCA, that has a powerful political
leverage. Immediately, the incident found its way to the political agendas of the Governor of Zulia, members of the State Parliament, members of the National Congress, and
even of a presidential candidate. Mass media thoroughly covered the incident, but frequently from an emotional, biased angle. Over the next months, most of the Venezuelan newspapers kept on publishing articles on this topic at almost a daily rate.
The situation cc;>mpounded when more than 10 000 embattled artisanal fishermen organized, with great hoopla, an aquatic parade - intended as a sail-through strike
in 3 000 small boats, which was widely covered by national and international mass media -( CNN, ECO, among other international TV networks). Outraged fishermen claimed
a settlement for their potential losses due to the spillage. They sought legal advise
and sued shipowners. The captain of the vessel was detained and an embargo of
US $7 million was laid upon the ship. In turn, shipowners, through INTERTANCO,
threatened to boycott maritime transportation of Venezuelan oil, alleging the below
par maintenance of the channel. LAGOVEN was put in charge of removing the oil from
the beaches.
Beach-cleansing was undertaken by more than 600 handymen, hired from the
nearby villages and paid a meager weekly wage of little more than US $82. Shoreline
clean-up and other related expenses were to be covered by international funds. The
usually messy operations involved in the oil collection and clean-up processes posed
special technical problems, that lead to the hiring of foreign and domestic experts. The
process has been regarded as a total failure bX the printed press.
J.E. Conde . G. Rodriguez
intervention probably would unbalance the water budget and hinder migrations of
fishes. In Colombia, as well as in Venezuela, the Escalante river goes through extense
rangelands where livestock is raised, while in its uplands there are tracts exploited by
itinerant croppers. The Zulia river, a tributary of the Catatumbo river, traverses, in its
medium and upper reaches, extensive croplands in Colombian country. The area where
the more intense agricultural development unfolds is the so-called Distrito de Riego
Rio Zulia - HIMAT (Norte de Santander Departament, Colombia), which spreads
throughout 175 km 2 • To the pollution with an agricultural origin, the large input of industrial and domestic wastes from the city of Cucuta and other nearby populations to
the Catatumbo basin should be added.
Based on these facts, it is easy to realize that the success of an ICZM programme for
the shorelands of the Maracaibo System will strongly depend on the cooperation of
the Colombian government. The Republic of Venezuela has attempted to face this situation by enacting a commission for management of common basins. But trouble would
not end at this level. In what might be viewed as a bizarre turn, recently the powerful
Colombian guerrilla (ELN) stated its environmental awareness through one of its adherents' declarations to the Venezuelan national press (Zambrano 1997). According to
this spokesman, all the military actions (mostly oil pipeline blastings) of the partisans
in the basins have been environmentally sound. He also stated a deep concern for deforestations, oil spills and mining concessions to multinationals.
16.11
The Nissos Amorgos Oil Spill
The greatest concern over the oil spill came from artisanal fishermen, who have a high
lobbying capacity through a strong union, FETRAPESCA, that has a powerful political
leverage. Immediately, the incident found its way to the political agendas of the Governor of Zulia, members of the State Parliament, members of the National Congress, and
even of a presidential candidate. Mass media thoroughly covered the incident, but frequently from an emotional, biased angle. Over the next months, most of the Venezuelan newspapers kept on publishing articles on this topic at almost a daily rate.
The situation cc;>mpounded when more than 10 000 embattled artisanal fishermen organized, with great hoopla, an aquatic parade - intended as a sail-through strike
in 3 000 small boats, which was widely covered by national and international mass media -( CNN, ECO, among other international TV networks). Outraged fishermen claimed
a settlement for their potential losses due to the spillage. They sought legal advise
and sued shipowners. The captain of the vessel was detained and an embargo of
US $7 million was laid upon the ship. In turn, shipowners, through INTERTANCO,
threatened to boycott maritime transportation of Venezuelan oil, alleging the below
par maintenance of the channel. LAGOVEN was put in charge of removing the oil from
the beaches.
Beach-cleansing was undertaken by more than 600 handymen, hired from the
nearby villages and paid a meager weekly wage of little more than US $82. Shoreline
clean-up and other related expenses were to be covered by international funds. The
usually messy operations involved in the oil collection and clean-up processes posed
special technical problems, that lead to the hiring of foreign and domestic experts. The
process has been regarded as a total failure bX the printed press.