Venezuelan lawmakers approve a sweeping mining bill to lure foreign investors

CARACAS, Venezuela, April 11, (AP): Venezuelan lawmakers approved a bill to regulate the country’s mining as it seeks to attract leery foreign investors to a once-private industry that has long been exploited by criminal groups with ties to the government.

It is the latest legislative initiative by acting President Delcy Rodríguez since the self-proclaimed socialist government that has ruled Venezuela for 26 years came under pressure from the Trump administration in January, when the US military deposed then-President Nicolás Maduro.

The lengthy bill will now undergo a review by the country’s high court to determine if it is constitutional. The bill regulates mineral rights, establishes small, medium and large-scale mining categories, and allows for independent arbitration of disputes, which foreign investors view as key to guard against the government seizing their assets.

It also bans the president, vice president, ministers, governors and others from holding mining titles. The bill is a "vehicle for the construction of future prosperity” and an "instrument that protects” mining workers across the country, National Assembly president Jorge Rodríguez told lawmakers after the measure was approved.

The approval came a day after the acting president asked public and private sector workers, whose wages have long not allowed them to afford basic necessities, for patience as her government works to improve the country’s economy. She promised them a wage increase on May 1 but did not disclose the amount.

On Thursday, as workers protested for better wages in the capital, Caracas, Delcy Rodríguez arrived in Grenada on her first official international trip as acting president. Two decades ago, many foreign firms in the mining and oil sectors saw their assets seized by the Venezuelan government.

However, as crucial oil revenues plummeted, Maduro’s government in 2016 designated more than 10% of Venezuela’s territory as a mining development zone stretching across the central area of the country. Since then, mining operations for gold, diamonds, copper and other minerals have proliferated.