Municipio de culebra: Culebra Municipio, Puerto Rico – Niche – Conoce las especies de Puerto Rico

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March 7, 2023
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Municipio de culebra: Culebra Municipio, Puerto Rico – Niche

Culebra Municipio, Puerto Rico – Niche

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Report Card

Public Schools
grade unavailable
Housing
grade C+
Nightlife
grade D minus
Good for Families
grade D
Diversity
grade C minus
Jobs
grade C minus
Weather
grade A+
Cost of Living
grade B
Health & Fitness
grade unavailable
Outdoor Activities
grade C minus
Commute
grade A

editorial

Culebra Municipio is a County in Puerto Rico with a population of 1,371. In Culebra Municipio, most residents own their homes. Many families live in Culebra Municipio.

About

Population

1,371

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Real Estate

Median Home Value

$161,700

National

$229,800

Median Rent

$542

National

$1,096

Rent
37%
Own
63%

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Map

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Home Listings

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Crime & Safety

Assault
No data available —
national 282.7
Murder
No data available —
national 6.1
Rape
No data available —
national 40.7
Robbery
No data available —
national 135.5

Burglary
No data available —
national 500.1
Theft
No data available —
national 2,042. 8
Motor Vehicle Theft
No data available —
national 284

Residents

Diversity

grade C minus

Based on ethnic and economic diversity.

<10 years
10%
10-17 years
10%
18-24 years
8%
25-34 years
13%
35-44 years
11%
45-54 years
11%
55-64 years
11%
65+ years
24%

Master’s degree or higher
2%
national 13%
Bachelor’s degree
16%
national 20%
Some college or associate’s degree
25%
national 29%
High school diploma or equivalent
35%
national 27%
Less than high school diploma
22%
national 11%

Working in Culebra Municipio

Jobs

grade C minus

Based on employment rates, job and business growth, and cost of living.

Median Household Income

$25,658

National

$64,994

Search for Jobs in Culebra Municipio

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List of Culebra Municipio, Puerto Rico Opportunity Zones & OZ Funds

The county of
Culebra Municipio, Puerto Ricohas
1 designated Opportunity Zone.

In total these Opportunity Zones have a population of approximately 1,300. That represents 100% of the county’s total population of 1,300.

The
median household incomefor this Opportunity Zone is approximately
$23,000.

The adjacent map shows all Opportunity Zones in Culebra Municipio. Click on any Opportunity Zone for additional information.

View larger map

List of All Culebra Municipio OZs

The table below lists all
1Opportunity Zone in Culebra Municipio. The first two rows show the state wide average and the average for all Puerto Rico Opportunity Zones.

Puerto Rico OZ Funds

There are

4QOZ Fundsin the OpportunityDb database with an investment objective that specifically identify
Puerto Ricoas a target market. Additional OZ funds may also invest in Puerto Rico; see a complete list of Opportunity Zone Funds
here.

Fund Name	Asset Classes	Property Types	Fund Size
Community Outcome Fund	Business, Real Estate	Commercial, Infrastructure, Mixed-Use, Residential	$500M
HDP QOF	Real Estate	Hotel	$19M
Puerto Rico Opportunity Fund	Business, Real Estate	Affordable Housing, Commercial, Energy Development, Hotel, Infrastructure, Mixed-Use, Residential, Student Housing	$150M
Wefunder Puerto Rico Opportunity Fund	Business		$100K

Mercury in water, air, people

English

Photo:

Juan Barreto

Mercury in water, air, people

OCCRP

21
September

2017

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Above: A gold miner is about to descend into one of the mines in the La Culebra sector (El Callao municipality) where gold ore is mined.
nine0005 Photo:

Juan Barreto

In a circular motion, Misael Reyes grinds the liquid mud on the copper tray to get to the treasures that are hidden in it. “See, a silvery drop appeared? he says. “This is mercury – we use it to separate gold from ore mined in mines and crushed in crushers.”

Photo:

William Urdaneta

A young gold miner starts descending into a mine where gold ore is mined. nine0003

Reyes knows his stuff well. He is 56 years old, and for 36 of those years he has worked in the gold mines of El Callao, a rural settlement in the state of Bolivar, at the eastern end of the Orinoco Mining Arch.

Reyes demonstrates the process by commenting on each step. First, mercury is mixed with crushed gold ore. When mercury interacts with gold, an amalgam is formed – a viscous substance that sticks to a copper pan. With a spatula, he scrapes off the amalgam, places it on a damp cloth, and wrings it out. Then he adds mercury again, places the mixture on a shovel and heats it with a blowtorch. As a result, mercury evaporates and only gold remains. nine0003

Gold miners work under a metal shed without walls. However, the air is saturated with mercury vapor, which nine miners and two journalists are forced to inhale. For amalgamation, 10 to 25 grams of mercury is used for every gram of gold.

Mercury is a heavy silvery metal, extremely toxic to living organisms, poisoning all by-products of production. Dry waste – crushed ore, sand and mud – is collected in dumps, which are later processed again to extract the remaining gold. Liquid waste is poured into artificial ponds with a diameter of about five meters and a depth of less than a meter. None of the workers use personal protective equipment against mercury. nine0003

Reyes doesn’t think it’s necessary. “We have been working here all our lives, we are already immune,” he says. He also dismisses the idea that the water people drink from a nearby river might be contaminated. “All mercury remains in the soil, not reaching the water,” he is convinced.

Reporters watched the gold mining process in early April 2017 at the Molinos Calderón mine, one of about 60 mines that have been operating for decades near the town of La Ramona in the municipality of El Callao. Molinos Calderón is the site of the Socialist Mining Brigades, a pilot project launched by the government this year to consolidate the artisanal industries operating in the region. (See the material “Socialist brigades of miners face the dictates of crime and the fall of gold mining”)

However, current regulations do not allow the use of mercury.

Photo:

William Urdaneta

Gold miners at work.

Presidential Decree, published in the Government Gazette in August 2016, prohibits the use, possession, storage and transport of mercury for the purpose of extracting or processing gold and other minerals in any mining operation in Venezuela. The Orinoco Mining Arch ban was meant to reassure environmentalists, but most miners ignore it and many have never even heard of it. nine0003

Many in government believe that mercury is no longer being used. In November 2016, the authorities proudly announced that the first batch of gold delivered from the Orinoco Mining Arch to the Central Bank was “green”, that is, obtained by environmentally friendly methods.

However, La Ramona miners claim that they mine gold with mercury and do not even think about the minimum means of protection for workers or the environment.

Despite attempts by Socialist Brigades to consolidate La Ramona’s artisanal industries into El Callao, miners say their methods have not changed, but now they are threatened by criminal gangs that have flooded the region. (See the material “Orinoco Mining Arch” under the heel of criminal bosses)

Photo:

William Urdaneta

Gold ore is poured into a crusher for grinding.

Politicians are trying to solve the problem of illegal mining

Socialist mining brigades, announced in November 2016, appeared on the basis of an official decree in January 2017. This pilot project may help bring artisanal mining under control.

Photo:

Juan Barreto

Gold miners at work.

The plan was to bring together hundreds of miners from the Nacupai sector (part of the larger 97-hectare region in El Callao, home to the Venezuelan Mining Company). Brigades formed from groups of prospectors have the right to develop deposits only in the Nakupai sector. But in fact, brigades were also formed in the La Ramona sector.

Crew Work Permit is valid for nine years. It does not imply ownership of the land or its resources, land cannot be transferred, leased or subleased and sold to another person.

The government says that the brigades will pay a small tax to the state – three percent of the minerals they extract will go to the Social Mining Fund and invest in social projects.

However, the miners say that nothing like this actually happens, they continue to work in the old fashioned way and sell gold to those who offer the best price. nine0003

Complicating the overall picture are ongoing changes in the newly established Ministry of Mining Development and Environmental Protection, where three ministers have changed over the past seven months. Roberto Mirabal’s place was taken in February by Jorge Arreaza, who was soon promoted, and in August Victor Cano was appointed to his post.

However, the ministry continues to claim that there is a positive trend: more and more gold is mined using environmentally friendly methods.

In November 2016, the concept of “social brigades” was first made public, and Mirabal, who was then minister, almost immediately announced the first gold bars coming from the Orinoco Mining Arch. He said they were “sustainably sourced,” that is, without the use of mercury. A month later, he reported that 400 kilograms of gold had been mined in six months (a round figure without specifying details). nine0003

Photo:

William Urdaneta

After grinding the ore, mercury-contaminated liquid waste is poured into shallow pits.

Arreaza, who served as minister for six months, made similar statements. But he also acknowledged that, despite the ban, local miners continue to use mercury. It will take more than one month to convince them, he said in a May interview published on the ministry’s website.

In September, Cano, the current minister, reported that, with new additions, about 4,000 kilograms of gold had been mined at the Orinoco Mining Arch in just 15 months.

However, at the Reyes mine, shouting over the crusher, he says: “This is how we’ve always worked, nothing has changed. We still extract ore in mines, crush it in crushers and use mercury to isolate gold.”

Gold mines and daily bread

Itamar Fernández and Hermine Gutiérrez work in the La Culebra sector of the El Callao municipality and they don’t care about the mercury ban because they’ve never heard of it. nine0003

There are about 20 gold mines in the sector. They are holes in the ground about half a meter in diameter and up to 40 meters deep, created at least ten years before the launch of the Orinoco Mining Arch project. As Fernandez says, “Nothing has changed here. Mercury is our daily bread.”

Gutiérrez claims that the miners here were not united in brigades and that they continue to work as before, without any support from the state.

The World Health Organization has stated that informal and artisanal gold mining accounts for 37% of the world’s mercury emissions and is the single largest contributor to mercury pollution in air and water. nine0003

Photo:

William Urdaneta

Workers at the Molinos Calderón mine in the municipality of El Callao say they have never heard of “socialist mining brigades”.

Mercury pollution

Jorge Paolini of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia conducted a study to find out how much mercury was ingested by the inhabitants of the basin of the once purest Caroni River, a tributary of the Orinoco in Bolivar State. He found that between 2000 and 2007, the concentration of mercury in fish eaten increased from 2.7 to 7.9milligram per gram.

Another study conducted between 2011 and 2012 by the Wildlife Conservation Society, the La Salle Foundation and the Universidad de Oriente showed that 92% of 152 Yekuana and Sanum women tested had high levels of mercury in their bodies because they ate fish contaminated with mercury.

WHO regulations allow up to two parts per million of mercury (ppm) in the body, but hair samples from these women averaged 9.38ppm. In almost 37% of cases, the level exceeded 10 ppm, in 7% of cases it was about 20 ppm, and in one case it reached 45 ppm – this is more than 22 times the allowable rate.

“These results demonstrate that the local population is poisoned by mercury, even those who live more than 200 kilometers from the place where the mines dump waste into the Caura River, although pollution levels are somewhat lower in more remote regions,” says Professor Salvador Penna , one of the scientists who took part in the study. nine0003

Mercury poisoning is extremely dangerous and can cause nervous system damage, memory loss, cognitive decline, speech and hearing impairment, anxiety, insomnia, uncontrollable seizures, mood swings, and vision and digestive problems. Damage to internal organs as a result of poisoning can lead to premature death.

What are the alternatives?

Photo:

Juan Barreto

nine0006
Workers at the Molinos Calderón mine in the municipality of El Callao grind milled mercury-laced gold ore without gloves or masks during the amalgamation process.

Prospectors say that small-scale production, which has machinery and equipment for crushing rock mined in mines, is a key stage in the gold mining process. It is they who provide workers with mercury to extract gold.

Alexis Chauran, spokesman for the Association of Revolutionary Miners and Foundry Workers of La Ramona, says they have no choice. “We work the old fashioned way. If we stop using mercury, how then to extract gold from ore? We do not pay attention to the prohibition, since the state must offer alternative options. If we move away from mercury, there will be no more small-scale gold mining, and 80% of the people of El Callao make a living from it.” nine0003

Some gold miners demonstrate that there are alternatives to mercury. In the Philippines, there is an equally effective way to extract gold by melting with borax. But it seems that such options are not even discussed in Venezuela.

According to WHO, mercury is one of the ten most dangerous substances that pose a threat to public health. But in the mines of El Callao, where the government is trying to organize the artisanal industries into “socialist mining brigades,” the way it works is so ingrained that it’s considered the only possible way. nine0003 Tweet this
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