LatinNews Daily - 10 March 2026

*Venezuela’s national assembly has approved a new mining law in the first of two votes it will face in the government-controlled legislature. The president of the national assembly’s energy and oil commission, Orlando Camacho, of the ruling Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV), said that the bill aims to promote national and international investment in the mining sector by “expanding all legal guarantees” for investors, including by permitting international arbitration in the event of contractual disputes. Camacho said that the bill also covers issues such as security, the management of mineral resources, and the designation of ‘strategic’ minerals. He said that it would also establish a social fund for mining communities, strengthen the role of the mining ministry, and create a national mining regulator, the Superintendencia Nacional de Actividad Minera. This overhaul of the 1999 mining law, which was drafted under former president Hugo Chávez (1999-2013), has been shaped to a large degree by the US and was a key topic of discussion during a visit to Caracas last week by US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum. It comes after the US also pushed for a radical reform of Venezuela’s hydrocarbon legislation, which was signed into law in late January.

End of preview - This article contains approximately 201 words.

Subscribers: Log in now to read the full article

Not a Subscriber?

Choose from one of the following options

• Subscribe
• Sign up for a one-time, 14-day trial