Venezuela has approved a new mining law to open the gold industry to international investors, but the legislation overlooks the symbiosis between illegal mining and the national government – and the dirty gold that results.
The Organic Mining Law (Ley Orgánica de Minas) was approved unanimously by the National Assembly on April 9. The law repeals regulations created in 1999, which prohibited foreign and private investment in strategic minerals, particularly gold. The legislation is the latest in a series of efforts to open Venezuela's resource markets to foreign investors after the United States captured and removed President Nicolas Maduro on January 3, 2026.
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The United States government has also done its part. Since January, he has relaxed the sanctions imposed on Venezuela's gold industry in 2019 and issued a license for gold imported from the state-owned mining company Minerven (Compañía General de Minería de Venezuela). International commodity traders are now quickly turning to invest in the country's gold industry.
The state and criminal groups in the gold trade
The majority of Venezuela's gold comes from informal mines controlled by armed groups, and foreign investment risks further enabling the criminal activities and corruption that fuel this illicit industry.
Mining hotspots are teeming with criminal organizations. The Venezuelan mining sector is concentrated in the region Orinoco mining arc (Arco Minero del Orinoco – AMO), a region designated as a mining zone by Maduro in 2016 and which is primarily located in the state of Bolívar but also includes parts of the Amazonas and the Amacuro Delta. Illegal mining operations are also seen in protected areas of Amazonas.
Guerrilla groups, including National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional – ELN), and the factions of FARC dissidents like the Facade of the Acacio medinacontrol operations in Amazonas and parts of Bolívar. Smaller armed mining gangs known as sindicatos including the Organization R (Organization R – OR) and Guayana traincontrol small mines, provide labor and act as quasi-governmental bodies within the AMO.
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Today, the state exercises control over AMO by working closely with criminal groups to source gold.
These groups are not marginal operators in the Venezuelan gold industry but are among the main suppliers. As InSight Crime investigations revealedState-owned mining companies, including Minerven, now part of the larger Venezuelan Mining Corporation (Corporación Venezolana de Minería – CVM), receive gold from mines or processing plants controlled by armed groups.
State-owned enterprises also purchase gold from obscure “strategic alliances” in which criminal organizations are often partners. These strategic alliances are attributed to politically connected individuals or military officials. In many cases, these actors coordinate directly with the sindicatos to carry out the mining itself. The government grants permits to these alliances and facilitates access to machinery and fuel, while the sindicatos take a percentage of production.
The new mining law plans to replace strategic alliances with “mining brigades”. However, it contains few details on what will happen to existing alliances or how the state plans to combat criminal involvement in these operations.
Cover image: A Venezuelan miner carries rocks to a crusher in Bolívar state, Venezuela.. Credit: AP.
