The Trump administration’s renewed interest in tapping Venezuela’s mineral reserves could carry with it “serious risk,” an expert on illicit economies has warned in the wake of the capture of Nicolás Maduro.
A day after the U.S. military captured Maduro in Caracas, Trump administration officials highlighted their interest in the country’s critical mineral potential.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told reporters on Jan. 4, “You have steel, you have minerals, all the critical minerals. They have a great mining history that’s gone rusty,” he said aboard Air Force One alongside President Donald Trump.
Lutnick also said that Trump “is going to fix it and bring it back – for the Venezuelans.”
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“Venezuela’s gold, critical mineral and rare earth potential is substantial, which makes mining resources very much on the menu for Trump,” Bram Ebus told Fox News Digital.
“But this illicit economy involves extreme violence,” he said, before describing abuses that include forced labor, criminal control of mining zones and punishments such as “hands being cut off for theft.”
Ebus cautioned that without strict safeguards, transparency and security, Trump’s efforts to tap Venezuela’s mineral wealth could entangle the U.S. in criminal networks.
“The sector is already dominated by transnational crime syndicates, deeply implicated in human rights abuses, and intertwined with Chinese corporate interests,” Ebus, the founder of Amazon Underworld, a research collective covering organized crime, said. “If corporations or foreign private security firms were to become directly involved in mining in Venezuela’s Amazon region, the situation could deteriorate rapidly and violently.”
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Despite the renewed focus on oil and mineral wealth, “when it comes to mining, the situation is more complex than oil,” Ebus added. “The illicit extraction of gold, tungsten, tantalum, and rare earth elements is largely controlled by Colombian guerrilla organizations, often working in collaboration with corrupt Venezuelan state security forces. Much of this output currently ends up in China.”
Ebus also described dire conditions inside mining zones. “Mining districts are effectively run by criminal governance,” he explained. “Armed groups decide who can enter or leave an area, tax legal and illegal economic activity, and enforce their own form of justice.” He also described how “punishments for breaking rules can include expulsion, beatings, torture or death.”
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“We have documented summary executions, decapitations, and severe physical mutilation, such as hands being cut off for theft,” he added. “Sexual exploitation, forced labor, and torture are widespread with crimes not limited to non-state actors.”
He also noted that “Venezuelan state forces, including the army, National Guard, and intelligence services are deeply involved and work in direct collaboration with organized crime groups.”
Ebus described how Colombia’s largest guerrilla organizations, including the ELN and factions such as the Segunda Marquetalia, along with Venezuelan organized crime groups operating locally – or “sistemas” – dominate illegal mining operations, noting that “there are at least five major ‘sindicatos’ operating across Bolívar state alone.”
“Together, all these actors make up the core criminal panorama of Venezuela’s mining sector,” Ebus added.
In 2016, Maduro established the Orinoco Mining Arc, a 111,843-square-kilometer zone rich in gold, diamonds, coltan and other minerals.
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The area has since become synonymous with illicit mining and corrupt officials.
In 2019, the U.S. sanctioned Venezuelan gold exports with at least 86% of the country’s gold reportedly being produced illegally and often controlled by criminal gangs.
However, from a U.S. perspective, Ebus said, the objective behind critical minerals could be limiting China’s access.
“With gold prices expected to peak around 2026, access to gold represents a major benefit for national economies and government investment stability,” he said. “Beyond gold, controlling critical mineral supply chains offers enormous geopolitical leverage for the U.S., especially if it allows it to deny access to China.”
