Venezuela

On the day that marks 13 years since the death of the Venezuelan socialist leader Hugo Chavez and two months after the US operation on January 3 that captured Nicolas Madurothe scene in Caracas seems strikingly different from the American anti-imperialist rhetoric that Chavismo founded and echoed by its successor.

On the ground, a new era marked by promises of gold, critical mineral mining and oil drilling is rapidly unfolding. Dozens of oil and mining executives, invited by the White House and warmly received by the Venezuelan interim government, are packing hotels recommended by the U.S. embassy in Caracas and taking excursions to explore Venezuela’s vast resource potential.

The United States Department of State and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela jointly announced on Thursday the restoration of diplomatic relations, severed in 2019 during President Trump’s first term. The statements promise that the measure will “facilitate joint efforts to promote stability, support economic recovery, and promote political reconciliation in Venezuela.” Caracas expressed confidence that the process “will contribute to strengthening understanding and opening opportunities for a positive relationship and shared benefit.”

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum concluded a two-day visit to Caracas on Thursday, saying, “We just finished two days of fantastically positive and constructive meetings. We had dozens of U.S. companies here that were interested in investing in Venezuela and they returned to Venezuela.”

Burgum thanked the “Madam President” Delcy Rodriguez and his brother, Dr. Jorge Rodríguez, president of the National Assembly, for acting at “Trump speed,” passing a law on hydrocarbons, key parts of oil and natural gas, that “improves transparency, consistency and reduces bureaucracy” and “creates an environment in which companies feel comfortable that they want to be able to reinvest and come back here.”

He added that Chevron, which operates in Venezuela, announced that Wednesday was its record production day. Standing next to Burgum at the Miraflores Presidential Palace, Rodríguez announced before a group of American mining executives and Venezuelan officials that the hydrocarbon law would be replicated for the mining sector.

The question of the 25 million dollars in Venezuela

There was a question about the secretary’s visit, which has become a rallying cry among members of the Venezuelan opposition both abroad and inside the country: What about Diosdado Hair? The person in charge of internal security in Venezuela and in charge of mining as Minister of the Interior is accused in the United States of crimes similar to those that led to the capture of Maduro.

In 2020, the United States Department of Justice charged Cabello along with Maduro and other Venezuelan officials with narcoterrorism and drug trafficking, alleging that he was among the leaders of the so-called Poster of the Sunsan alleged network of Venezuelan officials accused of working with Colombian guerrilla groups to traffic cocaine through Venezuela.

The US State Department is still offering a reward of up to $25 million for information leading to his arrest or conviction. However, during meetings at the Presidential Palace, Cabello was seated directly across from Burgum, his counterpart.

When asked by News themezone, which gained rare access to Venezuela during Burgum’s visit, why he trusts Cabello and whether he will participate in the negotiations, Burgum ignored the question. When asked again directly about Cabello, he refused to answer. When asked for comment about Cabello, the secretary looked at the next journalist.

If the United States is preparing to reopen Venezuela’s mines and American companies are preparing to invest billions, that transition will unfold in a region where a powerful network of armed groups, illegal mining and corruption have shaped the industry for years.

And for now, one of the men the United States once put a price on remains at the negotiating table.

Optimism amid security concerns

On Thursday, through the streets of downtown Caracas, a march at noon culminated in the monumental mausoleum where Hugo Chávez was buried. Maduro loyalists carried signs accusing the “empire” of “kidnapping” the regime’s now-imprisoned leader and his wife, Cilia Flores.

One crying woman, remembering Chavez’s legacy, described the weeks after Maduro’s capture as a “painful time.” But when asked about the influx of American oil and mining executives and the agreements the Rodríguez administration is making with the US government and private sector, she said she was “very proud” of Delcy Rodríguez, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, Defense Minister Padrino López and Jorge Rodríguez, the leading figures in both the interim government and the Maduro regime.

“President Delcy Rodríguez is a woman of peace,” he stated. He added that he believes that the ministers “do it for the collective, leaving aside their personal interests… they could be entering into an active conflict because we are an anti-imperialist country, but the collective is more important.”

Jholeika Gordillo, president of Gas Caracas, a public gas distribution company, who describes herself on social media as “Chávez’s daughter,” acknowledged the need for investments to revitalize oil production for the prosperity of the Venezuelan people, adding that the agreements are part of Rodríguez’s efforts to “maintain peace and stability.”

Others accused the Trump administration of imposing the agreements by force.

Both sides echo optimism, but security remains a major concern in Venezuela’s Orinoco Mining Arc, a 112,000-square-kilometer mining zone in the south of the country created by presidential decree in 2016.

UN fact-finding missions and independent investigators say they are criminal syndicates; the organization known as the National Liberation Army, or ELN, which was designated by the United States as a terrorist group; dissident guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC; and local militias control large portions of the mines, taxing the miners and imposing rule through violence.

Investigations have documented forced labor, sexual exploitation and children working in mining fields, while mercury pollution and deforestation have spread to indigenous territories and major river systems in the Venezuelan Amazon.

A report by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies found that “victims are forced into sex work or find it is their only employment option. Children are especially at risk of being trafficked in the area. There are reports that the average age of sex trafficking victims is 13 to 14 years old.”

When asked by News themezone what the United States’ plan is to address criminal elements in the mining sector and whether the United States is considering military involvement to fight those actors, Burgum said the answer was economic rather than military.

“The presence of the security concerns that you described was a function of the economic environment,” he said. The new mining law, he added, would create “excellent, well-paying jobs” and “that economic force is even more important than a military force to drive a transition.”