US must halt the terror-driven gold rush thats looting Venezuela

A human-rights horror is unfolding right under America’s nose, with kids under age 10 laboring in mines, girls as young as 12 working in brothels and whole communities fleeing cartel violence.Venezuela is at the evil heart of an illicit gold-mining rush that’s enriching US enemies like the Tren de Aragua cartel, the terror group Hezbollah and others.It’s the new El Dorado, run by cartels, enslaving children and fueling terror.Colombia and Peru are the world’s largest cocaine exporters, yet cartels in both countries are now making more money from illicit gold than from cocaine.The toxic substances used to refine illegal gold — mercury, cyanide and arsenic — poison entire communities and fund cartel chaos at the US-Mexico border.The notoriously brutal Jalisco Nueva Generación cartel makes millions of dollars supplying illicit mercury to South American gold and drug cartels.With the price of gold reaching a record-breaking $5,400 per ounce in January, illegal gold mining is becoming more profitable. Estimates suggest that, at 2026 gold prices, criminals and terrorists in Venezuela may be making around $10 to $12 billion a year from illicit gold mining and trading.Corrupt officials and lawless jungles have made Venezuela a hub of the illegal gold trade, with dirty gold from Colombia, Bolivia, Peru and Brazil, as well as from its own illicit mines, flowing through to international markets.Cartel gold is reportedly even making its way into coins sold by the US Mint.Former Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro propped up his regime by opening a wilderness area the size of Portugal to illegal gold mining, where he partnered with the cartels to control the trade in illegal gold, drugs and human trafficking.That’s why President Donald Trump took Maduro down — yet his successor Delcy Rodriguez is equally guilty.Maduro in 2020 used cartel gold to purchase goods from Iran; Rodriguez reportedly used it to bribe European officials that same year.And tod...