Since US intervention, Venezuela’s illegal mining crisis has only worsened, critics say

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum traveled to Caracas in March with more than a dozen mining company executives to discuss building a “legitimate mining sector” in Venezuela, months after a U.S. military operation removed Nicolás Maduro and sent him to a New York detention center. Officials have since touted new mining laws, raids, and the killing of a Tren de Aragua leader as signs of progress.

Yet researchers and advocacy groups tracking the ground truth say the opposite is happening: illegal mining has expanded into protected areas like Canaima National Park, at least 26 armed groups still control mining zones, and Tren de Aragua simply reorganized under new leadership after its leader's death. Satellite imagery shows dozens of new dredges and mine sites carved into a UNESCO World Heritage site sacred to Indigenous communities.

A new mining reform law promised state control and environmental limits, but critics call it greenwashing with no movement on the ground. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has documented malnutrition, mercury poisoning, and violence against Indigenous Yanomami communities living amid the mining expansion, and reiterated its 2024 call for Venezuela to protect their territories.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.