OFAC sanctions Venezuelan mining company

The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (‘OFAC’) says that it has ‘designated CVG Compania General de Mineria de Venezuela CA, or Minerven, the Venezuelan state-run ferrous metals mining company, and its President, Adrian Antonio Perdomo Mata, targeting the illicit gold operations that have continued to prop up the illegitimate regime of former President Nicolas Maduro.’

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that the Venezuelan government is ‘pillaging the wealth of Venezuela while imperiling indigenous people by encroaching on protected areas and causing deforestation and habitat loss.’

In a statement on the designation, OFAC says that ‘without approval of the National Assembly, and without regard for the environment and local communities, Maduro awarded himself broad authorities to oversee the development of the Orinoco Mining Arc years ago. The mining and subsequent sale of gold has been one of the Maduro regime’s most lucrative financial schemes in recent years, as hundreds of thousands of miners have mined for gold in dangerous, makeshift mines in southern Venezuela, all of which are controlled by the Venezuelan military, which, in turn, corruptly charges criminal organizations for access.’

OFAC notes that mining communities are exposed to environmental abuses, on account of dangerous and toxic elements such as mercury, that are used in the mining process, while ‘violent crimes, including homicides, have become increasingly prevalent in these mining communities’.

See: https://home.treasury.gov/index.php/news/press-releases/sm631