A human-rights horror is unfolding right under America’s nose, with kids under age 10 laboring in mines, girls as young as 12 working in brothels and whole communities fleeing cartel violence.
Venezuela is at the evil heart of an illicit gold-mining rush that’s enriching US enemies like the Tren de Aragua cartel, the terror group Hezbollah and others.
It’s the new El Dorado, run by cartels, enslaving children and fueling terror.
Colombia and Peru are the world’s largest cocaine exporters, yet cartels in both countries are now making more money from illicit gold than from cocaine.
The toxic substances used to refine illegal gold — mercury, cyanide and arsenic — poison entire communities and fund cartel chaos at the US-Mexico border.
The notoriously brutal Jalisco Nueva Generación cartel makes millions of dollars supplying illicit mercury to South American gold and drug cartels.
With the price of gold reaching a record-breaking $5,400 per ounce in January, illegal gold mining is becoming more profitable.
Estimates suggest that, at 2026 gold prices, criminals and terrorists in Venezuela may be making around $10 to $12 billion a year from illicit gold mining and trading.
Corrupt officials and lawless jungles have made Venezuela a hub of the illegal gold trade, with dirty gold from Colombia, Bolivia, Peru and Brazil, as well as from its own illicit mines, flowing through to international markets.
Cartel gold is reportedly even making its way into coins sold by the US Mint.
Former Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro propped up his regime by opening a wilderness area the size of Portugal to illegal gold mining, where he partnered with the cartels to control the trade in illegal gold, drugs and human trafficking.
That’s why President Donald Trump took Maduro down — yet his successor Delcy Rodriguez is equally guilty.
Maduro in 2020 used cartel gold to purchase goods from Iran; Rodriguez reportedly used it to bribe European officials that same year.
And today, throughout the Rodriguez government, Maduro’s cronies are still in power.
One Venezuelan colonel linked to illegal gold operations, who also ran Maduro’s torture centers, has even been promoted: He now runs the military counterintelligence special unit.
With his dirty profits, this same colonel has used US shell companies to buy businesses in Florida.
If Trump’s administration ignores the problems of cartel gold, it will undercut its primary goal in Caracas: pushing out the criminal organizations that send migrants, drugs and violence flooding toward the United States.
Venezuelan gold has also directly supported Iran’s illicit oil sales, undermining Trump’s efforts in the Middle East.
Hundreds of millions of dollars in Venezuelan gold a year heads to Turkey, enabling Russian and Iranian sanctions evasion and global money laundering.
As then-Sen. Marco Rubio said in 2019, “illegal gold mining’s effects” present a “direct threat to US national security and to the integrity of the US and international financial system.”
Despite those national security threats, the US Treasury Department created a sanctions exception for Venezuelan gold mining and gold purchases earlier this year.
But with more than 90% of Venezuela’s gold being mined illegally, it’s difficult to ensure that US companies are not funneling cash toward terrorists and criminals.
And Venezuela’s government is making it harder to eliminate dirty money: In April, the legislature passed a new law that make gold mining operations and contracts more opaque, helping criminals dodge scrutiny.
To protect American interests, the US should appoint an on-the-ground inspector general to conduct regular audits and monitor gold transactions for corruption, fraud and terror financing.
Without eyes on the money, Washington will hand more power to the very cartels that Trump spent $5 billion in Venezuela to defeat.
Removing Maduro was a chance to restore democracy — but entrenched terrorists must still be rooted out.
The mining sector should be part of Venezuela’s economic rebirth, but that will require a firm US approach that demands more transparency and imposes more oversight.
The 16th-century search for El Dorado killed millions through violence, disease and exploitation.
Today’s gold rush is following the same path — funding terrorists, poisoning communities and lining the pockets of America’s enemies.
Washington has a chance to help break that cycle, but only if it uses its leverage in Caracas to insist on accountability and action against terror financing.
As Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said last month, “If we are serious about ‘no money for terror,’ then there must also be ‘no room for excuses.’”
Josh Birenbaum is deputy director of the Center on Economic and Financial Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, where Susan Soh is a research associate.