By Francisco Dallmeier, Cristina Vollmer Burelli

This op-ed argues that Venezuela’s illegal mining industry has become a major geopolitical and security threat, extending far beyond environmental destruction in the Amazon. It warns that armed groups, criminal networks, and regime insiders are profiting from illicit gold and critical minerals that flow into opaque international supply chains, undermining U.S. efforts to secure reliable sources of strategic resources. The piece calls on Washington to strengthen sanctions and enforcement against Venezuelan conflict minerals, target the networks enabling the trade, and work with regional allies to disrupt illicit mining operations and build transparent, traceable supply chains.

Read the full OpEd here.

February 25, 2026 | The Wall Street Journal
Illegal mining has reached an industrial scale in the country’s southern jungles, where the government has no control

January 20, 2026 | Mongabay
Following the removal of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the U.S. has expressed interest in the country’s oil and minerals. But the current landscape means that a rushed investment could be disastrous for the environment, critics warn. Venezuela has an estimated 300 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves, the largest in the world. But decaying infrastructure and corruption make investment almost impossible, with a high risk of spills inside sensitive ecosystems. The country also has massive mineral deposits, many of them in the rainforest and on Indigenous territory. The mines are largely controlled by criminal groups, making U.S. involvement there extremely complicated, critics said.

January 18, 2026 | NY Times
President Trump said he expected the United States to run Venezuela for years. That is a daunting task.

January 15, 2026 | Mediapart
La direction du pays par Delcy Rodríguez n’augure rien de bon d’un point de vue environnemental au Venezuela, où l’exploitation du pétrole et des minerais fait des ravages. Les rares voix militantes qui s’expriment redoutent une répression inchangée contre les activistes.

January 11, 2026 | Inside Climate News

Illegal mining has enriched the Maduro regime and criminal groups while devastating the Amazon and its people. The U.S. is pulling out of organizations aimed at stopping the harm.

January 8, 2026 | Finantial Times
From street paramilitaries to Colombian insurgents, Venezuela is teeming with men with guns

December 31, 2025 | Mongabay
Organized crime, the expansion of extractive industries and climate extremes intensified environmental pressures across Latin America in 2025, driving deforestation, biodiversity loss and growing risks to local communities. Even as Latin America championed environmental protection internationally, wide gaps persisted in domestic enforcement of environmental regulations and prevention of environmental crimes.

December 31, 2025 | Mongabay
Organized crime, the expansion of extractive industries and climate extremes intensified environmental pressures across Latin America in 2025, driving deforestation, biodiversity loss and growing risks to local communities. Even as Latin America championed environmental protection internationally, wide gaps persisted in domestic enforcement of environmental regulations and prevention of environmental crimes.

November 11, 2025 | Mongabay
Across southern Venezuela, Indigenous communities have been drawn into mining for gold as their traditional way of life has been disturbed and they lack other economic opportunities.
Armed groups and a push for extractives have turned the Imataca Forest Reserve in the state of Bolivar into a mining hotspot, sources tell Mongabay, boosting deforestation and river pollution and destroying the livelihoods of Indigenous Pemón families.

7 Noviembre 2025 | Yahoo Noticias

September 2025 | Eco Américas
The Venezuelan Amazon, the biodiversity-rich rainforest ecosystem that spans half of this South American country, has come under immense pressure from criminal groups that, in league with Venezuelan government forces, are trans- forming the delicate biome into lucrative mining sites.