The Venezuelan socialist regime on Tuesday deployed Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) troops to one of the nation’s most important mining regions, seeking to regain control of the area from criminal organizations as the regime scrambles to reopen the nation’s ravaged mining sector to foreign investment.
Local and international outlets reported that the military operation — which has not been confirmed by any official state media at press time — occurred in the southern half of Bolívar state. The Venezuelan outlet Tal Cual reported that the yet-to-be disclosed military operation involved the movement of troops and helicopters around Bolívar, the town of Las Claritas, and its surrounding areas.
According to the non-government organization SOS Orinoco, the operation involved the use of armed helicopters against organized armed groups led by Juan Gabriel “Juancho” Rivas Núñez that, for years, have maintained control of what has been described as Venezuela’s largest gold deposits.
Per Bloomberg, Venezuelan former lawmaker and political prisoner Americo De Grazia said the Venezuelan military “bombed and opened fire on illegally controlled mines in the Las Claritas mining region.” Other non-governmental organizations, such as Venezuela’s Provea, also confirmed the Venezuelan military operation in Bolívar state.
“The presence of irregular groups and armed militias in Bolívar is not spontaneous. It stems from a system of territorial control and collusion, with varying degrees of coordination, promoted and tolerated by the Venezuelan government,” SOS Orinoco wrote.
“The current operation is taking place in strategic areas (Las Brisas – Las Cristinas) with vast mineral reserves and a history of international legal disputes. This demonstrates that there is significant political pressure to reconfigure control over the territory,” the organization continued.
Venezuela, in addition to housing the world’s largest proven oil reserves, holds valuable mineral resources such as gold, diamonds, and bauxite. Much like its oil industry, decades of socialist mismanagement have left the nation’s mining industry dysfunctional and prone to the control of violent criminal gangs. For years, local and international organizations reported that criminal groups had taken control of large swathes of the nation’s mining regions and nearby rural towns, violently enforcing their criminal rule and committing numerous human rights violations.
SOS Orinoco recounted on Tuesday that the criminal gangs’ control of some of Venezuela’s key mining resources stems from the Orinoco Mining Arc (AMO) — a large mining project launched by former dictator Nicolás Maduro in 2016 spanning parts of the Venezuelan states of Amazonas, Bolívar, and Delta Amacuro.
Countless environmentalists, politicians, and activists condemned the AMO in the following years for fostering widespread uncontrolled illegal mining and environmental devastation, in addition to the already extensive list of human rights violations committed against the local population. SOS Orinoco pointed out on Tuesday that Maduro launched the AMO without any legislative approval, civilian consultations, or environmental studies — a situation that, the organization asserted, was “all designed to favor illicit activities.”
“After years of on-the-ground monitoring, the conclusion is clear: it is impossible to stabilize the southern Orinoco region without dismantling the mafia-like model that enabled the expansion of illegal extractive industries and armed groups,” the group concluded.
In 2022, the Venezuelan non-government organization Transparencia Venezuela detailed that the criminal gang led by Rivas Núñez, also known as “Juancho,” effectively “rules” over Las Claritas and its nearby highways. The gangs led by “Juancho” are believed to control the Las Brisas and Las Cristinas gold mines, which the Venezuelan regime at one point planned to exploit in joint ventures with Canadian companies.
Transparencia Venezuela described Rivas Núñez as a dual Colombian-Venezuelan national who allegedly boasts at least two different sets of identification documents and also goes by the name of “Wilson Starling Aponte Rodríguez,” an identity he allegedly obtained through his connections with unspecified government officials.
Following Nicolás Maduro’s arrest by U.S. forces in January, his then-vice president and now “acting President” Delcy Rodríguez began collaborating with the United States, seeking foreign investment for the nation’s rundown oil, mining, and energy sectors. In March, Rodríguez met with U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum in Caracas and vowed that Venezuelan lawmakers would reform the nation’s restrictive mining laws to attack foreign investment.
The reforms were introduced in April, eliminating decades’ worth of socialist restrictions to the mining industry — some of which had been passed during the rule of late socialist dictator Hugo Chávez, who finished nationalizing Venezuela’s entire mining sector by 2011.
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