• Diamonds

Diamonds

This report looks at illicit diamond mining in Venezuela. The report find that though Venezuela annually produces an estimated 150,000 carats of diamonds, it has officially exported none since January 2005. Although Venezuela is a member of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) for controlling rough diamonds, it has essentially dropped off the KPCS radar.

The report argues that:

• recent efforts to halt illicit mining in Venezuela have led only to violence and death
• high taxes, ineffective currency controls and bureaucratic ineptitude have driven Venezuela’s diamond dealers underground
• lax controls allow them to smuggle the country’s entire annual diamond production out through Brazil, Guyana, Hong Kong, the United States and Belgium.

The report recommends that:

• Venezuela be expelled from the KPCS if the Kimberley Process wishes to maintain any semblance of order and integrity
• the Kimberley Process assist in dismantling this route by creating and chairing a tripartite commission of enquiry and adjudication to coordinate a process of dialogue on diamond production and control procedures in Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana
• the Government of Venezuela should convene a meeting of senior authorities from the departments of mining, taxation and finance to fix the tax and currency problems
• the Government of Venezuela create a centralised, computerised record of mining teams, diamond dredges and diamond traders.

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