Venezuela Rebukes Guyana Over Cross-Border Gold Smuggling Allegations

Caracas, June 30, 2025 (venezuelanalysis.com) – The Nicolás Maduro government soundly rejected claims from Guyanese President Irfaan Ali concerning illicit gold trafficking across the countries’ shared border.

“Venezuela firmly rejects Irfaan Ali’s shameless statements,” a communique issued on Saturday read. “Ali has made outrageous and baseless accusations against Venezuela, lying about an issue that he knows very well.”

Caracas’ rebuke of its eastern neighbor came in response to Ali’s claim that the country is being forced to spend significant resources to crack down on the alleged smuggling of Venezuelan gold across the border to Guyana.

The Maduro administration likewise criticized that the Guyanese president’s statements were made during an event at the US embassy in Georgetown, accusing Ali of “rendering accounts to his true masters.”

“Ali’s rule, marked by subordination [to the US], theft and provocations, has no legitimacy to accuse Venezuela of anything,” the document went on to say.

For her part, US Ambassador Nicole Theriot praised US-Guyana cooperation as “powerful” and “the strongest it has ever been,” highlighting joint efforts against purported illicit activities in the region.

“We’re putting enormous resources into ensuring that the threat of illicit gold smuggling that can help empower or safeguard undemocratic forces is uprooted,” Ali said in a joint press conference alongside Theriot on Friday.

Reports in Guyana last week claimed that gold mined by Venezuelan state mining company Minerven is being sold across the border and mixed into Guyanese exports. Local authorities reportedly seized gold shipments in March and April, but there was no evidence of any ties to Venezuela.

In 2021, Royal Canadian Mint suspended imports from El Dorado Trading over allegations that shipments included gold from Venezuela. The Guyana Gold Board announced an investigation but did not present any findings. Gold is Guyana’s second most important export product, with revenues reaching nearly US $1 billion in 2024.

The US Treasury Department blacklisted Venezuela’s state mining firm Minerven in 2019 as part of a wide-reaching sanctions program aimed at strangling the South American country’s economy and triggering regime change. Washington issued a license allowing transactions with Minerven in October 2023 but withdrew it two months later.

US economic coercive measures, particularly those targeting Venezuela’s oil industry, have forced Caracas to resort to intermediaries and black market channels to secure much-needed foreign currency income. Nevertheless, an analysis by Orinoco Tribune found no significant increase in Guyanese gold exports in the years following US sanctions on Venezuela’s mining sector.

The latest controversy comes in the wake of reported armed clashes along the border involving the Guyanese Defense Forces (GDF) and illegal mining outfits in recent months. Caracas has accused Georgetown of manipulating the incidents as a pretext for further US military involvement in the region.

Venezuela and Guyana remain locked in a two-century-old border dispute over the Essequibo Strip. The 160,000 square-kilometer territory is home to significant mineral resources as well as major offshore oil reserves. 

The Maduro government has also condemned its Guyanese counterpart for undertaking massive oil drilling operations in undelimited waters. It has additionally raised alarm bells over a heightened presence of the US Southern Command in the Caribbean, denouncing alleged plans to install US military bases in Guyana.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is currently weighing the Essequibo dispute following a request by Guyana that the tribunal enforce a controversial 1899 arbitration ruling that awarded that territory to the United Kingdom, the Caribbean country’s former colonizer. The UK’s expansion into the Essequibo in the 19th century was driven by gold discoveries.

Venezuela has rejected the ICJ’s jurisdiction over the matter, though it has defended its sovereignty case before the court. Caracas has long maintained that the 1966 Geneva Agreement is the only binding mechanism to resolve the longstanding controversy, arguing that it overrules the 1899 verdict and determines that both countries should reach a mutually agreeable settlement.

Venezuela’s May 25 regional and legislative contests included the election of National Assembly deputies and a governor for a would-be Guayana Esequiba state in the disputed strip. The vote was seen as largely symbolic and a reaffirmation of Venezuela’s sovereignty claim, as the territory remains under Guyanese administration.

Edited by José Luis Granados Ceja from Mexico City, Mexico.