July 17, 2026 | National Endowment for Democracy (NED)
The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is expanding support for initiatives that promote transparency and accountability in the critical minerals sector across Africa, Latin America and Asia. Through partnerships with civil society organisations, journalists and democratic institutions, NED aims to expose corruption, strengthen oversight and combat illicit networks linked to the extraction of strategic resources such as lithium, cobalt and copper. The organisation highlights projects in countries including Venezuela, Bolivia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zimbabwe and Zambia as examples of efforts to improve governance and ensure mineral wealth benefits local communities rather than authoritarian regimes, criminal groups or corrupt elites.

March 27, 2026 | Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project
International companies are rushing to exploit Venezuela’s gold belt, but there is no clear roadmap for how they will contend with the armed groups controlling concessions. Experts warn this could force firms into a murky supply chain described as “blood gold laundering.”

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.

This report, prepared by several organizations from six Amazonian countries (Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela), addresses the impacts of illegal gold mining in the Amazon, focusing on its devastating effects on human rights and biodiversity. Illegal mining in the Amazon is controlled in many cases by criminal networks facilitated by corruption and lack […]

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