Weekly Report - 27 July 2023 (WR-23-30)

On 24 July, Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro announced a “special plan” to clean up Lake Maracaibo, one of the world’s largest inland lagoons, which has been suffering the combined effects of oil spills, plastic rubbish dumping, and the spread of a bright green algae known as ‘verdín’. Despite the rhetoric, environmental experts believe the government lacks the resources or political will to reverse decades of neglect.