Armed groups control strategic border areas with Colombia, Brazil, and Guyana, where they also manage key drug‑trafficking routes, often operating in coordination with state security forces.584 Colombian guerrillas control the border region585 and use Venezuela’s Amazonas region as a hideout, where conditions are considered more 'comfortable'.586 Beyond coercion, these groups use patronage to secure influence in mining towns, funding teachers, building schools, and transporting the sick to gain local support.587 They have largely shifted from seeking national political influence to capturing local state structures and establishing parallel authorities that allow them to control illicit markets.588 Additionally, Mexican drug cartels such as Sinaloa and Jalisco, and Colombian paramilitary successor groups such as the AGC, control drug trafficking in the region.589 Paramilitary successor groups also engage in extortion, kidnapping, contract killings, sex trafficking, and the control of informal border crossings.590
Extortion is widespread in border states such as Táchira, Bolívar, and Zulia.591 Armed groups recruit Indigenous and other local youths to collect extortion payments and transport drugs from Colombia to Brazil, and they deploy them as fighters in Colombian conflict zones along the Venezuelan border.592 Extortion is pervasive at illegal border crossings, known locally as trochas, and is carried out by illegal armed groups including Tren de Aragua and the ELN.593 Forced disappearances are also reported, with Venezuelan NGO Fundaredes indicating that in 2024 it documented the forced disappearance of 35 people in Apure, Zulia, and Táchira, 23 of whom were migrants reportedly crossing back into Venezuela informally.594
In the Orinoco Mining Arc, criminal organisations control mining activities, particularly of gold, coltan, and diamonds.595 Transparency Venezuela reported that between 40 and 50 tonnes of gold are extracted annually, with an estimated value of 2.7 to 3.3 billion.596 Of this amount, the state receives 8 % in royalties, criminal organisations capture around 20 %, and the political elite approximately 66 %.597 Fundaredes indicated that many people who move to the Mining Arc seeking employment are coopted by criminal organisations, and many subsequently disappear.598 The use of children in mining operations is widespread.599 Cases of modern slavery are also reported, including labour and sexual exploitation, involuntary domestic servitude, labour trafficking, child labour, sexual slavery, and commercial sexual exploitation of children.600 Criminal groups control the sex trade in mining areas, where encounters are paid in gold.601 Some women are trafficked, others arrive out of economic necessity, and some bring their children and leave them in '"camps"' that provide childcare.602 Many women contract malaria and sexually transmitted infections.603 Armed groups, criminal gangs, and miners reportedly commit sexual violence against sex workers and young recruits.604 The National Guard conducts invasive searches to confiscate hidden gold.605 Sexual and reproductive health services are largely unavailable in mining regions, including for sex workers, and many Venezuelans seek care in Colombian border towns such as Puerto Inírida and Puerto Carreño, creating tensions with local residents.606
In September 2025, the US began carrying out airstrikes against boats in the Caribbean that were allegedly transporting drugs originating from Venezuela.607 For additional information, see section 1.8 Aftermath of US intervention.
- 584
International Crisis Group, A Curse of Gold: Mining and Violence in Venezuela’s South, 29 July 2025, url, p. 2; EUISS, After Maduro: The future of Venezuela and the Caribbean, 7 January 2026, url
- 585
New York Times (The), Why It’s Hard to Run Venezuela, 18 January 2026, url
- 586
International Crisis Group, A Curse of Gold: Mining and Violence in Venezuela’s South, 29 July 2025, url, p. 5
- 587
International Crisis Group, A Curse of Gold: Mining and Violence in Venezuela’s South, 29 July 2025, url, p. 5
- 588
The Conversation, Venezuela’s civil‑military alliance is being stretched — if it breaks, numerous armed groups may be drawn into messy split, 6 January 2026, url
- 589
El Debate, La red criminal que sostiene a Maduro en Venezuela: megabandas, pandillas y cartels, 12 April 2025, url
- 590
El Debate, La red criminal que sostiene a Maduro en Venezuela: megabandas, pandillas y cartels, 12 April 2025, url
- 591
Transparencia Venezuela, The faces of extortion in Venezuela 2024, 2025, url, p. 13; La Opinión, Especial | Viajar por Venezuela, un recorrido entre retenes y extorsiones, 6 April 2026, url
- 592
International Crisis Group, A Curse of Gold: Mining and Violence in Venezuela’s South, 29 July 2025, url, p. 5
- 593
Transparencia Venezuela, The faces of extortion in Venezuela 2024, 2025, url, p. 40; La Opinión, Especial | Viajar por Venezuela, un recorrido entre retenes y extorsiones, 6 April 2026, url
- 594
Fundaredes, Territorios del silencio: La realidad de los desaparecidos en zonas fronterizas de Venezuela, 26 May 2025, url
- 595
BBC, Qué otras riquezas naturales tiene Venezuela además del petróleo y cuáles son "críticas" para EE.UU., 11 February 2026, url; International Crisis Group, A Curse of Gold: Mining and Violence in Venezuela’s South, 29 July 2025, url, p. 17
- 596
Transparencia Venezuela, Explotación de oro en Venezuela 2024: Devastación, caos y corrupción, March 2025, url, p.
- 597
Transparencia Venezuela, Explotación de oro en Venezuela 2024: Devastación, caos y corrupción, March 2025, url, p. 4
- 598
Fundaredes, Territorios del silencio: La realidad de los desaparecidos en zonas fronterizas de Venezuela, 26 May 2025, url
- 599
International Crisis Group, A Curse of Gold: Mining and Violence in Venezuela’s South, 29 July 2025, url, p. 17; CECODAP, 5 preguntas sobre la niñez y la adolescencia en zonas mineras al sur de Venezuela, 8 March 2024, url
- 600
International Crisis Group, A Curse of Gold: Mining and Violence in Venezuela’s South, 29 July 2025, url, p. 17; Transparencia Venezuela, The faces of extortion in Venezuela 2024, 2025, url, p. 42
- 601
International Crisis Group, A Curse of Gold: Mining and Violence in Venezuela’s South, 29 July 2025, url, p. 18; Correo del Caroní, Explotación minera en Bolívar deriva en esclavitud moderna de mujeres y niñas, 21 March 2026, url
- 602
International Crisis Group, A Curse of Gold: Mining and Violence in Venezuela’s South, 29 July 2025, url, p. 18. See also: Correo del Caroní, Explotación minera en Bolívar deriva en esclavitud moderna de mujeres y niñas, 21 March 2026, url
- 603
International Crisis Group, A Curse of Gold: Mining and Violence in Venezuela’s South, 29 July 2025, url, p. 18; Correo del Caroní, Explotación minera en Bolívar deriva en esclavitud moderna de mujeres y niñas, 21 March 2026, url
- 604
International Crisis Group, A Curse of Gold: Mining and Violence in Venezuela’s South, 29 July 2025, url, p. 18; Transparencia Venezuela, Explotación de oro en Venezuela 2024: Devastación, caos y corrupción, March 2025, url, p. 16
- 605
International Crisis Group, A Curse of Gold: Mining and Violence in Venezuela’s South, 29 July 2025, url, p. 18
- 606
International Crisis Group, A Curse of Gold: Mining and Violence in Venezuela’s South, 29 July 2025, url, p. 19. See also: Correo del Caroní, Explotación minera en Bolívar deriva en esclavitud moderna de mujeres y niñas, 21 March 2026, url
- 607
Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2025: Venezuela, February 2025, url; PBS, U.S. kills 2 during latest strike on alleged drug boats traveling in the Caribbean, 5 May 2026, url