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Illicit Business

US Government plans more sanctions targeting Venezuelan gold exports

As the Maduro Regime attempts to maneuver around sanctions that are limiting its ability to produce revenues via PDVSA, they are trying to ramp up gold, diamond and coltan production, circumvent the Central Bank of Venezuela by smuggling these conflict minerals through Colombia, Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao and lately direct flights to Turkey, in order to export the minerals directly to Turkey and Iran.

Two recent presentations by US government officials have yet again put the spotlight on the illicit business promoted by the Maduro regime.

The first was a presentation by Department of the Treasury, Marshall Billingsley, at AEI (see video of event here) at which he stated that Venezuela is a threat to the stability and security of the region and that the US government now regards Turkey as the new protagonist and partner of Nicolas Maduro’s narcostate.  He suggested that Turkey is processing what could be termed as “conflict” minerals that have been massively stolen in Venezuela by the regime and is causing horrific environmental damage due to the mercury being dumped into rivers and human rights abuses of the indigenous populations in the region.


The second was a presentation by National Security Advisor John Bolton in Miami at which he focused on the “Troika of Tyranny” (Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela) and President Trump’s newly announced Executive order, providing the legal framework for new sanctions, this time targeting Venezuela’s mining and export of gold and other minerals. Several articles of interest have since been published on the topic:

Our position on
the Orinoco Mining Arc

Arco Minero del Orinoco

The purpose of SOSOrinoco is to shed light on the existing body of work regarding the situation in the Amazonia and Orinoquia regions of Venezuela, to raise awareness of the tragedy that is occurring and to outline some urgent measures that need to be taken in order to halt the unfolding human and environmental disaster.