How gangs took control of mines in Venezuela - Taipei Times

By Patrick Fort / AFP, CARACAS

Investors cheered when Venezuela opened its vast mineral reserves to private capital in April, but gang control over many mines could prove a powerful obstacle.The South American country, which is undergoing a profound transformation following the US overthrow of then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro in January, has the world’s largest proven oil reserves.It is also rich in gold, diamonds, bauxite and coltan, a mineral essential for technology and defense that is classified as critical by Western powers, as well as rare earths.

A man pays at a store with grams of gold, which is the main means of payment in the mining town of El Dorado in Venezuela on May 24 last year.

Mining activity is concentrated in a vast area spanning 112,000km2 in the east known as the Orinoco Mining Arc, but there are also mines in southern Amazonas and Bolivar states.Lisseth Boon, author of Oro malandro (Bandit Gold), about Venezuela’s mining badlands, called the gold mined in Venezuela “blood gold” — an allusion to the “blood diamonds” found in African conflict zones. Nearly all Venezuelan mining activity is controlled by gangs or guerrillas from neighboring Colombia, who call themselves sindicatos (syndicates) and impose a regime of fear.