LatinNews Daily - 09 March 2026

*The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac) has issued a new general licence allowing certain transactions involving Venezuelan gold. This easing of sanctions on Venezuela’s mineral sector comes after US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum visited Caracas from 4-5 March to discuss a reform of the country’s mining law. Under general licence 51, transactions which were previously prohibited, including those involving the Venezuelan government, Venezuela’s state mining company Compañía General de Minería de Venezuela (Minerven), and companies Minerven owns, are broadly allowed if they are “ordinarily incident and necessary to the exportation, sale, supply, storage, purchase, delivery, or transportation of Venezuelan-origin gold for importation into the United States, the refining of such gold in the United States, and the resale or exportation of such gold from the United States, by an established U.S. entity”. The licence stipulates that any such contracts must be governed by US law and that any dispute resolution must take place in the US. There are exemptions, including a prohibition on transactions involving Iran, Cuba, and Russia; transactions with entities connected to China; and transactions involving sanctioned vessels.

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