These include the rights to life, health, clean water and sanitation; the right to a safe, clean, healthy, and sustainable environment; and the right to access information, participate in public decision-making, and seek justice in environmental matters. It also undermines the rights to land, self-determination, and other essential protections.

The magnitude of the human rights violations and crimes linked to mining in AMO is such that the UN independent Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela issued a special report of ca.150 pages specifically addressing the horrors taking place in that region.

The Report, titled “The human rights situation in the Arco Minero del Orinoco region and other areas of the Bolívar state” (Report of the independent international fact-finding mission on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela | OHCHR) is preceded by calls from the UN High Commissioner of Human Right to “end criminality” following a previous (2020) report on Venezuela Titled “Venezuela: UN report highlights criminal control of mining area, and wider justice concerns” (Venezuela: UN releases report on criminal control of mining area and wider justice issues | OHCHR) which documents, among others:

• Children as young as nine working in the mines under the control of criminal groups.
• Exploitation of unskilled and sometimes barefoot workers, forced to do 12-hour shifts, descending deep pits without any protection.
• Reports of killings and existence of pit burials.
• Prostitution, sexual exploitation and trafficking in mining areas, including adolescent girls.
• Harsh punishments on those not complying with the rules imposed by the criminal groups (severe beatings, being shot in the hands, or having a hand cut off, as well as killings).
• Lack of water and basic sanitation.

Numerous reports confirm that indigenous leaders and community members who resist mining in Venezuela have been subjected to disappearances, killings, torture, and sexual exploitation.

Bolivar state has been particularly hardly hit by violence and killings linked to illegal mining. In 2018 local news reported that 107 persons had been killed in 12 massacres since 2016. (107 personas han sido asesinadas en 12 masacres en Bolívar desde 2016).

According to other sources, in 2019, there were 869 recorded homicides in Bolivar state and 28 cases of kidnapping and/or enforced  disappearances. (Morir en la frontera: en 2019 hubo 1.850 víctimas y 484 enfrentamientos armados en los seis estados limítrofes de Venezuela – Infobae).

In 2020, Human Rights Watch warned that “Residents of Venezuela’s southern Bolívar state are suffering amputations and other horrific abuses at the hands of armed groups, including Venezuelan groups called “syndicates” in the area and Colombian armed groups operating in the region, both of which exercise control over gold mines…The armed groups seem to operate largely with government acquiescence, and in some cases government involvement, to maintain tight social control over local populations” (Venezuela: Violent Abuses in Illegal Gold Mines | Human Rights Watch).

Indigenous peoples are the most vulnerable to these violations and murders and are often facing state impunity. Although tragic examples of these abuses and crimes abound, the murder of territorial guardian Virgilio Trujillo (30 June 2022) and the massacre of Yanomami people in Parima B (March 2022) are recent alarming reminders of impunity of these crimes.

Virgilio Trujillo (38 years old Indigenous Uwottuja) coordinated the Indigenous Territorial Guard in Autana (Amazonas state) and was the founder of a group defending Indigenous lands from criminal groups and illegal mining. He was murdered on 30 June 2022. Until now his murder remains unsolved. No one has been prosecuted or convicted, and the authorities do not respond to status requests by local human rights organizations.

The Killing of four Yanomami people (three men and one woman) in 2022 occurred in Parima B, a large Yanomami community in the Alto Orinoco Municipality (Venezuela’s Amazonas State) where the military have a base. Venezuelan soldiers opened fire on a group of Yanomami reportedly in the context of an argument over access to the internet. These killings also remain unsolved despite calls by the Inter American Commission of Human Rights.

Several organizations report that the Venezuelan authorities have done nothing to protect the Yanomami. The Organization Survival International has reported sexual violence against, and rape of, Yanomami women by miners. They have denounced that “Armed and violent criminal gangs operate with impunity in the region and many communities in the illegal mining zones are living in a permanent state of siege as miners constantly intimidate and fire on them. In 2020, two Yanomami were killed by goldminers and in 2021 at least two uncontacted Yanomami were reportedly murdered by goldminers. Two Yanomami children drowned when they were sucked under a goldmining dredge in 2021” (Venezuela and Brazil: Violence and destruction escalate in the Yanomami territory).

Human and environmental rights defenders are at risk. In 2019, Venezuela was ranked by Global Witness # 7 in the world’s list of countries with the largest number of killed environmental activists. (2019 was the deadliest year ever for environmental activists, watchdog group says).

Javier Tarazona, Director of the Venezuelan NGO FUNDAREDES was arrested on 2 July 2021 by security forces. His detention took place two days after he held a news conference denouncing links between the government and Colombian guerrillas operating in the region. This drew widespread condemnation as it was considered a reprisal for his human and indigenous rights advocacy work. Javier Tarazona has already spent more than 1545 days in jail.

Indigenous communities are disproportionately affected by the use of mercury as this enters the food chain through fish and water sources, leading to severe health consequences including neurological damage, developmental disorders in children, and reproductive issues. Despite this, Venezuela is the only Amazon country still refusing to ratify the Minamata Convention on the use of mercury.

The abuses and violation of their basic rights and the confrontations with the military and criminal groups spread across their territories, have  forced entire Indigenous communities to seek refuge away from their ancestral lands thereby threatening the survival of their culture.

Freedom House has confirmed the impact of illegal mining on Venezuelan indigenous people as follows: “…the illegal mines are displacing Indigenous Peoples and unleashing environmental devastation, and their profits prop up the regime of Nicolás Maduro and contribute to global corruption. To thwart human rights atrocities and the transnational illegal mineral trade, the international community must enforce accountability mechanisms and support Venezuelan investigative journalists and civil society groups exposing mining-related abuses”( Illegal Mining in Venezuela is Exacerbating Violence, Ecocide, and Global Corruption. The International Community Must Act. | Freedom House).

In the absence of official statistics, various local organizations have tried to measure forced migration of Indigenous people, but it is difficult to reconcile figures from the diverse sources.

On 4 March 2021, IOM Brazil informed that at least 5,000 indigenous people born in Venezuela (65% of whom are from the Warao ethnic group) had arrived in Brazil since 2016. (Indigenous Venezuelan Refugees, Migrants Focus of New Brazilian | OIM Brasil).

According to Provea, the exodus involves not only Warao people (mainly to Brazil, Guayana and Trinidad & Tobago) but also Pumé and Jivi, whose territories are in the states of Apure and Amazonas, and the Wayuu and Yukpa, located in the state of Zulia, many of which have cross-border  dynamics with Colombia. (Especial | ODEVIDA: La hecatombe ambiental que está generando el gobierno de Maduro en Venezuela – PROVEA).

Illegal gold mining in Venezuela has become a central pillar of transnational organized crime, deeply intertwined with state corruption, armed groups, and international smuggling networks.

The list of criminal activities linked to mining is long. It includes human trafficking, contraband, money laundering, drug trafficking, modern slavery, sexual exploitation, extorsion and financing of terrorism.

Several reports, including a recent one by International Crisis Group, have documented these crimes, the various routes and actors involved. On the ground, this includes the Venezuelan military, the Colombian Guerilla (ELN, FARC dissident factions now part of the Segunda Marquetalia) and Venezuelan criminal syndicates or “sistemas”. Referring to the sistemas, the article highlights that the criminal activities comprise: “…fuel and drug trafficking, as well as sexual exploitation of women. Increasingly, they also extract extortion payments from other local enterprises. For example, food vendors in the municipality of El Callao told Crisis Group they were paying $100 per month to sistemas, while processing mills were surrendering 20 per cent of their gold-bearing sand”. (A Curse of Gold: Mining and Violence in Venezuela’s South | International Crisis Group).

Sex trafficking has been denounced, among others, by the UN Fact Finding Mission on Venezuela. An article in The Guardian, referring to the UN Fact Finding Mission Report highlights that “Once lured to the region, economically vulnerable women and girls are enslaved by criminal groups who steal their documents or threaten them with violence, rape or public shaming”. It further quotes the report as follows: “The 70 case studies in the report offer a harrowing illustration of how corruption and impunity have left the country’s most vulnerable groups – women, children and Indigenous populations – open to abuse from state forces” (Venezuela’s mining region a hotbed of sex trafficking and violence, UN says | Global development | The Guardian).

Human trafficking has been a concern for many years with some statistics reaching alarming levels. An article in the Miami Herald referring to a Report by Transparency International offers unsettling insights that reflect the profound severity of the matter. The human trafficking industry in Venezuela is reportedly generating an estimated $2.6 billion profit affecting mainly women, children, migrants, and indigenous communities whom according to these sources “remain vulnerable to exploitation on a massive scale”. “(Human trafficking in Venezuela surges to a $2.6 billion industry | Miami Herald).

Illegal gold mining in Venezuela is also deeply intertwined with money laundering operations that enable criminal groups to integrate illicit profits into the formal economy.  According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), organized crime groups—including drug trafficking organizations—have embedded themselves in gold supply chains across Latin America, exploiting weak regulatory oversight and legal loopholes to launder money through fraudulent documentation, bribery, and corruption. These actors use forged permits and falsified origin certificates to disguise illegally mined gold as legitimate, allowing it to enter global markets undetected. (ECR25_P2b_Minerals_Crime.pdf).

INTERPOL also confirms that illegal mining operations, particularly artisanal and small-scale mining, are exploited by transnational criminal networks to fund corruption, human trafficking, and other serious crimes. The opaque and cross-border nature of mineral supply chains provides ideal conditions for laundering proceeds from illegal mining. In Venezuela, this is exacerbated by the state’s limited enforcement capacity and alleged complicity with armed groups controlling mining zones. (Illegal mining crimes).