The US Secretary of the Interior met with Delcy Rodríguez and promoted reforms for Venezuela's mining sector

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum met this Wednesday with dictator Delcy Rodríguez at the Miraflores Palace in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, in the framework of a visit in which one of the main interests on the agenda of the official of the Administration of President Donald Trump will be specifically the mining sector. In a statement, the Venezuelan regime said Rodriguez and Burgum discussed a bilateral agenda in sectors such as energy, and reiterated that the socialist dictatorship was "at the disposition" to cooperate with the United States.

Shortly after the meeting, which was attended by Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello and U.S. Chargé d'Affaires in Venezuela Laura Dogu, Rodriguez and Burgum asked to accelerate the reform of the Mining Law in order to broaden the legal framework to develop said sector not only with national but also foreign investment. In an address to the media, the secretary highlighted the promising future that awaits the two countries if this cooperation continues: "The opportunities that exist for collaboration and synergy between the two great countries have no limits", said Burgum.

Likewise, the secretary highlighted that he held a meeting with several representatives of the mining sector of the United States and Venezuela, assuring that there were "more than two dozen U.S. companies with us today, some of the largest, strongest and most prominent mining and mineral companies in the world". Likewise, Burgum pointed out that these represented "billions of dollars" in investment and thousands of new well-paying jobs.

For her part, the Venezuelan dictator spoke about the opportunity for development and investment in the mining area and thanked the words that shortly before Trump had issued in his Truth Social account, where he assured that Venezuelan oil was starting to flow to the United States and that Rodriguez was doing a "great" job. "I want to likewise thank the president of the United States, Donald Trump, who in the middle of our meeting wrote a post saluting what is this working agenda between the government of the United States and the government of Venezuela. As we had mentioned and highlighted, the government of Venezuela is at the disposal to, through the channels of cooperation, address concrete agendas that benefit both the people of the United States and the people of Venezuela", said Rodriguez.

Multi-million dollar agreement to sell up to 1,000 kilograms of gold to the U.S.

Shortly after the meeting, the Axios media revealed that a Venezuelan state-owned mining company signed a multi-million dollar deal on Monday to sell up to 1,000 kilograms of gold destined for U.S. markets. As indicated to Axios by two sources familiar with the deal, it calls for state-owned Minerven to supply between 650 and 1,000 kilograms of Dore bullion to commodities trader Trafigura. The media also detailed thatthe contract provides for a final gold content of 98%, and that Trafigura will be responsible for moving the gold to refineries in the United States under a separate agreement with the U.S. government.

The meeting between Burgum and the socialist leader takes place in the context of the political change that Venezuela has been experiencing since last January 3, when the US military captured dictator Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, in one of the most transcendental moments in the history of the South American country.

Since then, the Trump Administration has assured that, in cooperation with Rodriguez, Venezuela will go through a phase of recovery and political transition to eventually materialize free elections that will restore democracy after two decades of a leftist dictatorship - of which Rodriguez has been a key part - that generated one of the worst humanitarian crises in the region's history.