The Gold Mafias in Venezuela

Most of you know Venezuela as an oil producer country, in reality Venezuela is one of the most rich countries regarding natural resources including gold, but natural resources are property of the state, so private companies cannot exploit them without the consent of the state, and the government don’t have any interest in capitalizing natural resources beyond oil.

The richest place in Venezuela is the Bolivar state (red tinted).



It is the least dense populated state in Venezuela, but have most of the natural resources including the biggest river (oil tankers can transit it) the biggest oil reservoir in the world (unfortunately is too heavy so it’s not really worth to exploit it) and that lake in the middle is actually a damp build in the 70s to produce electricity, the idea at the time was to produce 98% of the country electricity with renewable resources to sell the most oil possible.



I found this Spanish documental about one of the illegals gold mine in Venezuela, even if you don’t understand Spanish you should see it just to watch the wonderful natural landscape of Venezuela like this one



Which are being destroyed by the illegal mines

The documental have really nice cinematography so just for that it may be worthwhile, skip to when you see the landscapes if you don’t care about the rest, anyway ill try to say more or less what it says

As I said before the government have the monopoly of the resources and since Chavez came to power all of the foreign companies exploiting resources were nationalized and in most cases abandoned.

Traditionally Gold cannot be legally mined in the country to protect the wildlife, this was all the time a theory that did not translate to practice in this state, so big and with little population it is not controlled at all by the army, so illegal miners known as garimpeiros mined the place in open mines like the one pictured above, they not only come from Venezuela, but Brazil too.

The documentary focus on one of the mines nationalized by the government, originally managed by a Canadian company, Las Claritas is now illegally exploited by garimpairos controlled by mafias. It shows a town created by the miners, the prostitution in it and part of the mafias controlling the place, they act as police and defend the miners, while taking a chunk of their golf for it of course. The town economy work around gold and hookers charge 6gr for a night, in a country that lacks everything, including toilet paper, las claritas have it all.

The video start at the gates of the defunct mine, where for an entrance price of 20€ paid to a national guard you can gamble your life searching the dream of el dorado (it’s cheaper than seeing mickey in Disneyworld)

The land of the mine yields 6 grams of gold per every ton of dirt processed, as in the best days of the US gold rush everything is used to get it, from your hands to destroying the land with hydraulic jets, of course gold mines would be nothing without mercury.

All the small gold chunks are processed in artisanal ways

The result?


That little gold bar weights around 480gr, that is $18K for you mortals, a year this kind of mining produces 20 tons of pure gold or 700ish millions depending on the gold price. How does miners move so much gold? Corrupt officials controls this step of the business, who buys 20 tons a year? That is a trickier question but many in the country thinks Israel does, of course narcotrafic gets a chunk too, no matter who get it, one thing is sure, it does not stay in Venezuela.

The gold fever is high and the mining does not limits itself to what used to be the Canadian mine, meet the angel falls,


The highest waterfall in the world, soon wont be so pretty, as the mines inches everyday closer to it


The loss of the gold for the country is a minor problem compared to the ecologic print this mines leave after the miners move to another area



There you have it, if you want to get rich there is no better place than Venezuela, as one of the prostitute interviewed said, personally I have meet some garimpairos and they said that the dream of making some quick money is just a dream, because you are a slave for the mafias and if the mine won’t kill you it will be one of the wonderful tropical diseases as the malaria, or the military in a turf war between corrupt officials, a few years back the military whipped out a mining camp killing at least 90 people in not so clear conditions.

And if gold it’s not your thing, you could always try to go for diamonds, and if you are really adventurer Venezuela have some very big uranium deposits that Iran seems to be buying but that is hush hush

It’s a shame that no one put subtitles in these Spanish documentaries, lately they have made some pretty good ones about Venezuela, as Pablo Iglesias, a mini Chavez, seems can win a presidential election in Spain, the country started to pay attention to what happened in Venezuela as they could be next.

Too bad I don’t know how to do that, and even if I did I’m too lazy anyways

a reply to: Indigent

Just what is wrong with the State (as in all the people) owning all the resources and using them for the benefit of the people?

Common resources (anything the earth holds) should only be used for the common good, not the uncommon good of an miniscule elite.

originally posted by: FyreByrd
a reply to: Indigent

Just what is wrong with the State (as in all the people) owning all the resources and using them for the benefit of the people?

Common resources (anything the earth holds) should only be used for the common good, not the uncommon good of an miniscule elite.

I agree. I don't think investors in Brussels or New Your City should be allowed to exploit & hoard the resources of Venezuela or any other place. Let the people of the area benefit from their resources. If used properly, those resources can keep their people out of poverty. But if outside investors control those resources, the locals will never get out of poverty.

I guess the Annunaki have really been pretty darn busy all along.

It is a tragedy what has happened to Venezuela. I would love to spend time diving Lake Maracaibo, I believe that is one of a few places in the world where the last vestiges of a technologically advanced Antediluvian society could be found.

a reply to: enlightenedservant

That is a nice though but what is being done in that place is slavers get the gold out of the country and the they keep all the money, when the ones in NY or Brussels do the mining usually the country gets 40+% in taxes. warlords are way worse than Brussels - NY...

a reply to: BlueJacket

Really? that place was a swamp, is a swamp and will be swamp, Maracaibo lake is ,by the other hand near this mine are located the Tepuis, there is the best place to find a lost civilization in Venezuela

originally posted by: Indigent
a reply to: enlightenedservant

That is a nice though but what is being done in that place is slavers get the gold out of the country and the they keep all the money, when the ones in NY or Brussels do the mining usually the country gets 40+% in taxes. warlords are way worse than Brussels - NY...

And thank you for bringing it to our attention, I didn't know this was going on.

But I do fail to see how you get from this situation to saying that public ownership of resources is a problem. In fact, I think this highlights the problem with 'private' ownership of resources.

a reply to: FyreByrd

I don't get it so ill explain again, in Venezuela since 1972 all that is underground is property of the nation, if you want to get something from the ground you go to the government and ask a concession, you mine your stuff and then you pay a really high tax. after Chavez came he revoked all concessions to all commodities and said the state would operate all directly or by mixed capital joints were the government would have a stake.

After they kicked the foreigners, in most cases they haven't paid anything for their inversion, the state did not proceed to operate the mine, they just abandon it and let corrupt criminal organizations control clandestine mining operations without any regular control or contribution to the state.

In other words mafias, most likely owned by corrupt government officials have people working like slaves to mine the gold they latter sell in the black market.

I really fail to see how this is a public vs private thing.

a reply to: FyreByrd
You are assuming the government is going to share the profits with the people though. Not exactly a safe assumption, as far as government histories go.

originally posted by: Indigent
a reply to: FyreByrd

I really fail to see how this is a public vs private thing.

I know.

originally posted by: TKDRL
a reply to: FyreByrd
You are assuming the government is going to share the profits with the people though. Not exactly a safe assumption, as far as government histories go.

Corruption is a given where-ever wealth and people come into contact. But the ideal must be strived for honestly.

I read a quote, on ATS about how most countries call it corruption whereas the (self-righteous) US called it lobbying and have made it the supreme law of the law. (I parahase somewhat).

Captialism doesn't work, Socialism does in many countries, and Communism may work better yet. History will decide. I prefer to work towards the 'common good' before the 'private good'. It's much better for my health and well-being.

a reply to: FyreByrd
Communism works great, but it only seems to work great on a small scale. The larger the beast is, the more vicious it seems to become.