Sec. 2. Findings
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Congress makes the following findings: The illicit mining, trafficking, and commercialization of gold in the Western Hemisphere— negatively affects the region’s economic and social dynamics; strengthens transnational criminal organizations and other international illicit actors; and has a deleterious impact on the environment, indigenous peoples, and food security. A lack of economic opportunities and the weak rule of law promote illicit activities, such as illicit gold mining, which increases the vulnerability of individuals in mining areas, including indigenous communities, who have been subjected to trafficking in persons, other human rights abuses, and population displacement in relation to mining activity, particularly in the artisanal and small-scale mining sector.
Illicit gold mining in Latin America often involves and benefits transnational criminal organizations, drug trafficking organizations, terrorist groups, and other illegal armed groups that extort miners and enter into illicit partnerships with them in order to gain revenue from the illicit activity. Illicit gold supply chains are international in nature and frequently involve— the smuggling of gold and supplies, such as mercury; trade-based money laundering; and other cross-border flows of illicit assets.
In Latin America, mineral traders and exporters, local processors, and shell companies linked to transnational criminal networks and illegally armed groups all play a key role in the trafficking, laundering, and commercialization of illicit gold from the region. According to a report on illegally mined Gold in Latin America by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime— more than 70 percent of the gold mined in several Latin American countries, such as Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, is mined through illicit means; and about 80 percent of the gold mined in Venezuela is mined through illicit means and a large percentage of such gold is sold— to Mibiturven, a joint venture operated by the Maduro regime composed of Minerven, a gold processor that has been designated by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the Department of the Treasury, pursuant to Executive Order 13850 (relating to blocking property of additional persons contributing to the situation in Venezuela), and Marilyns Proje Yatirim, S.A., a Turkish company; or through other trafficking and commercialization networks from which the Maduro regime benefits financially.
Illegal armed groups and foreign terrorist organizations, such as the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (National Liberation Army—ELN), work with transnational criminal organizations in Venezuela that participate in the illicit mining, trafficking, and commercialization of gold. Transnational criminal organizations based in Venezuela, such as El Tren de Aragua, have expanded their role in the illicit mining, trafficking, and commercialization of gold to increase their criminal profits.
Nicaragua’s gold exports during 2021 were valued at an estimated $989,000,000 in value, of which— gold valued at an estimated $898,000,000 was shipped to the United States; gold valued at an estimated $48,700,000 was shipped to Switzerland; gold valued at an estimated $39,000,000 was shipped to the United Arab Emirates; and gold valued at an estimated $3,620,000 was shipped to Austria.
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Sec. 2
Findings
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