Fourteen miners are believed to have died in a flood at a the Cuatro Easquinas Gold Mine in El Callao in Venezuela on Sunday 11 October 2025. The event has been associated with heavy rains in the area, with local media reporting six hours of rain before the collapse, and caused the main shaft of the mine to collapse, trapping miners in three underground shafts. One miner who escaped reported a 'volcano of water' erupting in the mine, which suggests an underground breach from a flooded deposit. Rescue workers were forced to pump water out of the mine before entering, finding no survivors who had not escaped immediately.
Gold mining is a major industry in Venezuela, but the sector is also notoriously lawless and exploitative, with few safety precautions in place in many mines, and miners often poorly paid and poorly educated. Rumours of forced labour are common, and attempts by law enforcement agencies to impose some order on the sector have been met with resistance, with many mines controlled by politicians, criminal groups, and even militants from neighbouring Colombia. From 2018 to 2023, and then from 2024 onwards, the US has placed an embargo on gold exports from Venezuela, as part of a wider set of economic sanctions against the country. However, this has led to further criminalisation of the sector, with production rates unaltered and a lucrative industry smuggling gold through other nations springing up.
Venezuela has a wet tropical climate with a rainy season that lasts from April 20 November, and flooding and other rainfall-related events are not uncommon. A warming global climate is leading to higher rainfall levels, with flooding and landslides becoming more common, placing strain on the country's already weak infrastructure.
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