The Orinoco Mining Arc, a massive 111,844 square km region encompassing 12.2% of Venezuelan territory announced in 2016 by President Nicolás Maduro as Venezuela's economic salvation beyond oil dependency, has faced fierce resistance from a coalition of environmentalists, Indigenous groups, scientists, and former government officials. Former Environment Minister Ana Elisa Osorio rejected the government's claims of "ecological mining," declaring "there is no possibility that open-pit mining can be environmentally friendly," while the National Academy of Natural Sciences, through Academic Secretary Antonio Machado-Allison, warned of "extreme deforestation along with disastrous health issues for local inhabitants." Indigenous opposition has been particularly vocal, with Gregorio Mirabal of the Regional Organization of Indigenous Amazonian People (ORPIA) condemning the mining initiative as "destruction of forests and watersheds," while the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon (COIAM) issued a statement from its 15 member groups rejecting the "pronounced capitalist overtones" of the project as "contrary to our conception of life and Mother Nature."