LatinNews Daily - 08 April 2026

*Venezuela’s national assembly has begun the second and final debate on new mining legislation, which was approved in the first vote last month. The president of the national assembly’s energy and oil commission, Orlando Camacho, of the ruling Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV), has previously said that the initiative, which overhauls 1999 legislation, 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. A key topic of discussion between Venezuela’s President Delcy Rodríguez and US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum during the latter’s visit to Caracas last month, the proposed reform follows the approval of a hydrocarbon reform at the end of January, less than a month after the US military incursion in Venezuela and removal of then president Nicolás Maduro (2013-2026).