Venezuela: Global Witness maps resource-driven violence in the country and reflects on challenges posed by the oil industry
"Scale of resource-driven violence affecting Venezuelans revealed in interactive map", 26 February 2026
...Since 2020, over 6,600 incidents of political violence have occurred in Venezuela, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED)...
Opportunists working to control the country’s mining sector have played a major role in the south of the country, particularly in cases enacted against Indigenous Peoples and land and environmental defenders.
As international energy majors now move to secure Venezuela’s oil, there are worrying signs that history could repeat itself, with Venezuela’s people likely to pay the price...
The Orinoco Mining Arc, located in Venezuela’s southern states of Amazonas, Bolívar and Delta Amacuro, has become a centre for illegal gold mining and lawless violence. Criminal groups – known in mining areas as sindicatos – Colombian guerrilla groups and parts of the armed forces profit from extracting rich mineral deposits and extorting the local population.
Last year, a Global Witness and Amazon Underworld investigation found that illegal mining and trafficking of critical minerals in Venezuela’s Amazon basin are driven by global demand, with sources claiming that foreign buyers now visit mining sites in the presence of criminal actors...
According to the ACLED data, 119 cases of violence have affected Indigenous groups in Venezuela since 2020. Nearly half of these occurred in the southern states of Amazonas, Bolívar, Delta Amacuro and Apure. Fifty-eight cases are directly linked to the mining sector.
But limited access to remote rural areas and barriers to reporting suggest that the true number of incidents is likely higher...
In total, we have documented 23 killings of land and environmental defenders between 2012 and 2024 in Venezuela. Out of these, 18 were part of Indigenous communities. Sixteen were killed in relation with the mining and extractives sector...
Many killings and disappearances go unreported and are difficult to verify due to restrictions on the media and their security concerns and limited information from remote regions like the Arco Minero del Orinoco and Indigenous territories...