Gold has become the new lifeblood flowing through the veins of the Nicolás Maduro regime. With the oil industry collapsing and international sanctions restricting access to foreign currency, the Venezuelan regime has found in the extractive industry a critical alternative revenue stream and a mechanism for political control.
The Orinoco Mining Arc, a vast zone covering millions of hectares of the Amazon rainforest in southern Venezuela, has devolved into a battleground for armed groups, military factions, and criminal networks — all operating with the regime’s complicity.
“The Maduro regime demands a share of the revenues obtained in this area and acts as an arbiter in disputes between the organizations operating there,” Ryan C. Berg, director of the Americas Program and head of the Future of Venezuela Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), told Diálogo.
Under the pretense of national development, the Mining Arc functions in practice as a network for the extraction and smuggling of illicit gold. This operation feeds international financial networks, circumvents sanctions, and guarantees a steady flow of foreign currency.
Having become the new financial lifeline of Chavismo, Venezuelan gold also acts as a powerful mechanism for political cohesion. Through this metal, the regime guarantees the loyalty of segments of the Venezuelan Armed Forces (FANB), enriches elites close to power, and sustains local structures linked to transnational criminal organizations, ultimately consolidating territorial control and reinforcing Maduro’s permanence in power.
Illegal mining with state complicity
In 2016, the Maduro regime established the Orinoco Mining Arc National Strategic Development Zone, a megaproject covering nearly 12 percent of Venezuelan territory, an area almost the size of Portugal. This region is rich in resources such as bauxite, coltan, industrial diamonds, and most crucially, gold.
The magnitude of this illicit economy was highlighted in a report by the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition, which revealed that at least 86 percent of Venezuelan gold is produced illegally. Approximately 70 percent is subsequently smuggled, with an estimated illicit value of $4.4 billion in 2021. Though Venezuela accounts for only 5.6 percent of the Amazonian territory, it concentrates more than 30 percent of the illegal mining centers in the basin.
This scheme directly and indirectly benefits the Maduro regime. The semi-official mining sector, comprising state-owned companies such as Minerven and the Military Company for Mining, Oil, and Gas Industries (CAMIMPEG), sources minerals from illegal mines and exports them primarily to Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. Part of these profits flow directly into the regime’s coffers, according to the CSIS report, Illegal Mining in Venezuela: Death and Devastation in the Amazon and Orinoco Regions.
However, these operations represent only a fraction of the business. The majority of the gold leaves the country as contraband and is then formalized on the international market, with the regime and security forces securing a significant portion of the profits at every stage of the process.
The corruption machinery
The creation of the Mining Arc allowed the regime to deploy military units under the guise of protecting strategic areas and attracting investment. However, investigations reveal that this initiative serves to consolidate state control over mineral extraction and ensure the direct participation of military actors in the business.
A 2024 U.S. State Department report presented to Congress denounced the Mining Arc as a system of institutionalized corruption. Military personnel and officials have transformed access to the mines into a source of personal enrichment. This network of high-ranking military and regime officials led by Maduro himself, which facilitates large-scale illicit gold extraction and narcotrafficking, is widely known as the Cartel of the Suns.
“The Arc, home to numerous indigenous peoples, has become a center for mining and illicit gold smuggling. The extraction and sale of this mineral have become a lucrative financial scheme for some well-connected Venezuelans and members of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces,” the State Department document states.
The International Crisis Group (ICG), in its report, The Curse of Gold: Mining and Violence in Southern Venezuela, warns that the military deployment is part of a reconfiguration of territorial control. According to the study, many officers have evolved from mere security forces into direct economic actors. They allow illegal miners to operate in exchange for payments that can reach 20 percent of production or agreements to sell gold below market price. Some prominent generals in the area receive up to $800,000 a month in bribes, according to the ICG.
This dynamic reflects the Armed Forces’ increasingly central role in the political and economic fabric of Chavismo, a role reinforced after their decisive support for Maduro in the 2024 elections. “In a deeply polarized political landscape, these mechanisms allow the regime to ensure the loyalty of the Armed Forces,” Berg said.
Mining as political currency
Maduro has further used mining to consolidate the loyalty of political leaders. In November 2019, he announced that the 19 Chavista governors would each receive direct control of a gold mine, with the possibility of using the profits to bolster regional budgets, CSIS reported.
Even more alarming are allegations of state complicity and military permissiveness in the face of transnational criminal networks. According to the ICG, the FANB delegates control of mines to non-state armed groups, cementing a hybrid system involving the military, criminal organizations, and local authorities.
“The Maduro regime uses all means at its disposal to stay in power, and the current price of gold offers incentives to continue illegal mining in the infamous Mining Arc,” Berg said.
A mosaic of guerrillas and transnational crime
With the complicity of the state, southern Venezuela has been transformed into a mosaic of criminal actors who divide territory and gold profits in exchange for political loyalty to the regime.
According to the ICG, active cooperation exists between the FANB and the National Liberation Army (ELN), a Colombian guerrilla group historically linked to Chavismo. Both forces reportedly operate in coordination in areas of Yapacana and Canaima National Parks, imposing gold taxes, recruiting indigenous youth, and exercising social control through violence.
The ELN also allegedly controls the exploitation of a mine in San Martín de Turumbang, on the border with Guyana, a site reportedly ceded by the Venezuelan regime, according to InSight Crime. Simultaneously, the dissident FARC faction known as Segunda Marquetalia is disputing territory with the ELN, consolidating the presence of Colombian armed groups in southern Venezuela.
“The regime tries to arbitrate between the different groups wherever they operate, allowing those willing to pay kickbacks and collaborate with it to act, while persecuting and punishing those who refuse to do so,” Berg explained. According to him, the Venezuelan regime’s support for these guerrilla groups, designated terrorist organizations, “provides Maduro with security options in case his power is threatened, while generating income from illicit activities.”
Added to this network is the Venezuelan criminal organization Tren de Aragua (TdA), also designated a terrorist organization by several countries in the region. In Bolívar state, TdA acts as a mining syndicate, controlling operations in Las Claritas with protection from local and military authorities, InSight Crime reported. During the 2024 elections, the streets of Las Claritas were covered with pro-regime propaganda and images of the character “Super Bigote” (Super Moustache). This regime-created superhero cartoon based on Maduro became a visible symbol of the fusion between state propaganda and organized crime in a zone under the influence of terrorist organizations.
On the border with Brazil, the First Capital Command (PCC) has also extended its influence, operating in Yanomami territories and using air and river routes to extract Venezuelan gold. According to InSight Crime, this transnational smuggling circuit crosses Brazil, Guyana, and the Caribbean, financing armed structures, buying political loyalties, and propping up the regime in the face of international isolation.
Environmental crime and human cost
In addition to the expansion of organized crime, environmental devastation is advancing unchecked in southern Venezuela. The Mining Arc has become a hotbed of ecological destruction affecting the Venezuelan Amazon rainforest, one of the most biodiverse areas in the country. Illegal logging is giving way to mines, roads, and camps, while illicit operations are rapidly invading protected areas.
According to data cited by Infobae, by 2023 these operations had penetrated 27 of the 41 protected areas in the Venezuelan Amazon, and deforestation had skyrocketed by 170 percent annually. Between 2017 and 2020, more than 22,000 hectares were cleared in national parks such as Caura, Canaima, and Yapacana. Even Cerro Delgado Chalbaud, the source of the Orinoco River, was ravaged by Brazilian miners. Environmental monitoring infrastructure has virtually disappeared due to budget cuts and corruption, Infobae reported.
Added to the devastation is the massive use of mercury and other toxic chemicals that pollute rivers and soils, damaging human health, biodiversity, and Amazonian ecosystems. Data revealed by CSIS show that high levels of this element have been found in nearby rivers that supply drinking water to Colombia and Brazil and flow within Canaima National Park. Elevated levels of mercury have also been found in freshwater fish in the region, which are exported for consumption in Brazil, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Criminal control also fuels human trafficking and sexual exploitation in mining camps, exacerbating the vulnerability of a region where Indigenous communities represent almost half of the population of Amazonas state. Agriculture has been displaced by mining, creating a dependence on illicit networks and causing high school dropout rates. Despite the apparent gold rush, poverty persists. In Bolívar, 82 percent of the population lived in extreme poverty in 2021, according to data from Crisis Group.
For Berg, “the Maduro regime is a full-fledged, devastating criminal regime that has empowered itself through relationships with criminal organizations in the heart of South America and poses a major challenge to regional and global order,” he concluded.
