Caracas, Venezuela – Venezuelan lawmakers on Thursday approved a draft law to regulate mining in the country as it seeks to attract wary foreign investors to a once-private industry that has long been exploited by the government. Criminal groups With relations with the government.
It is the latest legislative initiative by Acting President Delcy Rodriguez Since the fall of the self-proclaimed socialist government that ruled Venezuela for 26 years Pressure from the Trump administration In January, when the US military ousted then-President Nicolas Maduro.
The lengthy bill will now undergo review by the country’s highest court to determine whether it is constitutional.
The draft law regulates mining rights, defines small, medium and large-scale mining categories, and allows independent arbitration of disputes, which foreign investors consider essential to protect against government confiscation of their assets. The president, vice president, ministers, governors and others are also prohibited from holding mining titles.
The bill is a “tool to build future prosperity” and a “tool that protects” miners across the country, National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez told lawmakers after approving the bill.
The approval came a day after the acting president asked public and private sector workers, whose wages have long not allowed them to afford basic necessities, to be patient while her government works to improve the situation. The country’s economy. She promised them a wage increase on May 1, but did not reveal the amount.
On Thursday, as workers protested for better wages in the capital, Caracas, Delcy Rodriguez arrived in Grenada on her first official international trip as acting president.
Two decades ago, several foreign companies in the mining and oil sectors saw their assets confiscated by the Venezuelan government. but, With the decline in important oil revenuesIn 2016, Maduro’s government designated more than 10% of Venezuela’s territory as a mining development zone extending across the country’s central region.
Since then, extraction operations for gold, diamonds, copper and other minerals have increased. Many of these sites are unofficial, unlicensed mines Working under brutal conditions The presence of criminal groups.
Murders, human trafficking, fuel smuggling and other crimes are common in mining areas, but ordinary Venezuelans Keep the flow going there Hoping to get rich quickly and escape poverty.
Officials and military personnel take cuts from illegal mining revenues in exchange for allowing mines to operate.
“Gold mining and its subsequent sale have proven to be a lucrative financial scheme for some well-connected Venezuelans and senior officers within the National Bolivarian Armed Forces, which profit by charging criminal organizations fees for access and inputs, such as fuel.” US Department of State Reported to Congress last year.
“It is difficult to confirm the estimated market value of gold mined in Venezuela, but well-respected sources estimate it has averaged $2.2 billion annually over the past five years.”
The newly approved bill sets royalties and taxes and sets a maximum limit on mining concessions for 30 years, with the possibility of renewal. It also imposes prison sentences on those who engage in illegal activities and those who cause environmental damage, and allows the confiscation of illegally obtained minerals.
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