Delcy Rodríguez, the acting president of Venezuela, enacted the new Organic Mining Law this Friday and took the opportunity during the event to thank President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio for their "good disposition" in the process of diplomatic and economic rapprochement between Caracas and Washington.
The video of the event was published without portraits of Hugo Chávez or Nicolás Maduro in the background, a detail that analyst Maibort Petit interpreted as a deliberate strategy: "Paying attention to the details, without pictures of Chávez or Maduro, aiming for the video to go viral and reach Rubio or Trump, without images that tarnish their work."
In her remarks during the signing, Rodríguez was explicit: "I want to thank President Trump, the Secretary of State, and the secretaries who have been involved throughout this process for their willingness to establish diplomatic, economic, and cooperative relations with Venezuela that are adapted to an economic reality that allows the truth about Venezuela to be known."
Upon enacting the law, Rodríguez stated: "From this moment on, the Organic Mining Law is hereby enacted. Here it is. I deliver it to the people of Venezuela."
The new regulation replaces the 1999 Mining Law and repeals the 2015 Reserve Law, which reserved for the State the exploration and exploitation of gold and strategic minerals.
According to Rodríguez herself, the law "will allow for significant investments to be attracted" and in its fifth article, it includes "all types of companies": public, private, mixed with majority public or private participation, and even 100% private companies.
The law, unanimously approved by the National Assembly on April 10, also establishes the National Superintendence of Mines and the National Scientific Data Bank for the registration of minerals.
In the event, Calixto Ortega, sectoral vice president of Economy and Finance, and Anabel Pereira, minister of Economy and Finance, were present.
The enactment comes in the context of a迅速的 rapprochement between Rodríguez's government and the Trump administration, which began following Maduro's capture by U.S. forces on January 3, 2026 and Rodríguez's appointment as interim president two days later.
This process included the visit of Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum to Caracas in March, the negotiation of a gold contract between the state-owned Minerven and Trafigura valued at 165 million dollars, the transfer of 100 million dollars in Venezuelan gold to the United States on March 14—the first in over twenty years—and the formal recognition of Rodríguez's government by Trump on March 9.
However, the law has generated rejection among human rights and environmental organizations. The organization Provea described it as an instrument to institutionalize ecocide and the laundering of blood gold.
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