The U.S. and Venezuela have launched a joint military operation targeting criminal groups in a lawless gold-mining region in Venezuela’s south, U.S. officials said, as the interim government in Caracas seeks to open the mineral-rich area to American investment. The campaign’s opening salvo was a U.S. airstrike on June 12 that killed Héctor Guerrero, a founder of the Tren de Aragua gang, whom President Donald Trump later announced had been killed. The U.S. had designated Tren de Aragua a foreign terrorist organization last year.
Interim President Delcy Rodríguez offered private assurances to top Trump administration officials and mining executives in March that her government would ensure the security of foreign companies and investors seeking to enter the mineral-rich interior, according to U.S. officials. Her pledge represented a sharp break from Maduro, who had challenged the Trump administration before his capture by U.S. forces in January. In the months that followed Maduro’s transport to the U.S. on drug charges, American and Venezuelan officials moved to create more investment-friendly conditions.
The U.S. loosened restrictions on some Venezuelan gold transactions. Trump administration officials, including the secretaries of the interior and energy, traveled to Caracas with executives to strike preliminary investment agreements. Venezuela’s legislature approved a new mining law opening the sector to foreign investment. Some companies with long-stalled projects in the southern Bolívar state began positioning themselves to return.
But a major challenge remained: untangling the criminal economy that had taken root under Maduro’s rule. As oil income collapsed under mismanagement and U.S. sanctions, Maduro turned to gold mining to raise money and allowed cronies — including powerful military officers, Venezuelan gangs and Colombian guerrilla groups — to entrench themselves, according to former regime officials, rights advocacy groups and local miners.
Bram Ebus, who tracks the region for the International Crisis Group, said the U.S. is counting on “a thoroughly corrupt Venezuelan military” that has benefited from the lawlessness in the gold belt. “Rather than halting extraction, Venezuelan military forces have long collected payments in gold from the gangs in control of mines, including Colombian guerrillas, Brazilian criminal syndicates, and Venezuelan bands,” Ebus wrote. “These groups also hold sway over many of the communities where an estimated 200,000 mine workers live.”
By early June, residents in towns such as Las Claritas, where Guerrero had long been suspected of hiding, reported Venezuelan military units moving into the area and confrontations with miners. One shopkeeper in Las Claritas said she spotted at least two Venezuelan military helicopters circling the town and heard large bangs that sounded like explosions and gunfire. Soldiers went door to door questioning residents about suspected criminals and raided houses, seizing vehicles and other belongings, she said.
A delegation of investors, including representatives of American companies, visited the mining town of El Callao on June 8, where they toured a plant operated by state-run gold company Minerven and a private school, local officials said. The following day, they made a stop at nearby Las Cristinas, a gold mine that had been expropriated by the government more than a decade earlier.
On June 12, Trump released a video showing a U.S. strike on a compound in which he said Guerrero was killed. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the U.S. military was there at the “invitation” of the Venezuelan government and suggested the strike marked the start of a broader campaign, without providing details. “We were able to identify where he was and kill him, just like we would kill al Qaeda or ISIS,” Hegseth said. The joint effort also includes intelligence sharing from the Central Intelligence Agency, according to a U.S. official.
Venezuelan Mining Minister Hector Silva visited Las Claritas after the airstrike. State television broadcast images of Silva, guarded by Venezuelan soldiers, addressing miners under a makeshift tarp. He promised to create new “miner brigades” to incorporate wildcatters into a formal industry and opened an office to field complaints.
Omar John, a town councilman in El Callao, a gold-trading and processing hub, said he welcomed Western companies but hoped newcomers would dedicate resources to badly needed infrastructure. “We hope they look at the social side, too,” John said. “We need them to listen to the people and their necessities.”
U.S. officials said the joint effort will continue, a sign of deepening cooperation between the two countries since the U.S. military ousted Maduro. The Trump administration has cast the killing of Guerrero as central in its campaign in Latin America against drug-trafficking groups designated foreign terrorist organizations.