Project Golden Opacity II: How Gold Trafficking, Crime, and Politics Are Linked

This project aims to reveal, from a systemic perspective, the links between political power, the massive gold trade, and criminal organizations in Venezuela and Peru.

In the case of Venezuela, this investigation exposes the ties between the government, organized crime, and gold trafficking during the administration of Delcy Rodríguez—the current interim president of Venezuela following the capture of Nicolás Maduro by the United States. Reporting reveals how power has been reorganized to further gold extraction, despite warnings about the environmental impact and the lack of regulation in the trafficking of this mineral.

In the case of Peru, this investigations looks into how political power facilitates the criminal infrastructure of gold and drug trafficking, primarily in the Amazon, through the approval of laws that legalize the use of roads used by illicit economies. Declarations of public necessity promoted by Congress have functioned as a political mechanism to legitimize and accelerate the construction of these illegal roads.

By building databases, using satellite maps, and on-the-ground reporting, this project examines a failed regulatory system marked by special interests, a lack of transparency, and government complicity.