Caracas ‘allowing gem smuggling’

Venezuela is still allowing “massive diamond smuggling” and should be expelled from the Kimberley Process, the United Nations-backed initiative to curb the illegal trade in gems, according to a report released on Tuesday by two non-governmental organisations.

Global Witness and Partnership Africa Canada call on the European Commission, currently chairing the KP, to preserve the credibility of the scheme by taking action against Venezuela for “flagrant non-compliance”.

“If the KP does not address large-scale smuggling of rough diamonds in Venezuela and other countries it cannot effectively protect against the threat of blood diamonds,” said Charmian Gooch, director of Global Witness, referring to stones used to fund conflicts.

Iván Hernández, Venezuelan deputy minister of mines, promised at a meeting in June that his country would comply with KP rules.

Since then Caracas has submitted data on diamond production and exports, which are still being analysed, but not the requested annual report. Venezuela remains the only country in the scheme that has never allowed KP inspectors to monitor its system of controls on the ground.

“Venezuela has not communicated much and I have to say I am disappointed,” said Karel Kovanda, a senior Commission official. “But expulsion is like an atom bomb, to be used with caution. We are exerting every effort and we still hope to see some progress in the few weeks before the KP plenary meeting in November.”

Gilberto Sanchez, president of Venezuela’s mining chamber of commerce, said the country lacked resources to monitor the industry.

“There is a lack of control in diamond mining sites because they are so remote, in thick jungle, where not even the authorities have the capacity to control what is going on,” he said.

Expelling the country from the KP “would be negative for the development of responsible and sustainable diamond mining in Venezuela”.

The NGOs’ report alleges other violations of the KP, most notably the smuggling of diamonds from rebel-held areas in the north of Ivory Coast to the gem traders of Dubai. But Mr Kovanda described the accusations against Dubai as “rumours without hard evidence”.