ACCORDING to reports Venezuela’s expulsion from the Kimberley Process Certification System (KPCS) as lax monitoring controls are allowing diamonds to be smuggled out of the country through Brazil, Guyana, Hong Kong, the US and Belgium. Venezuela has not officially exported a single diamond since January 2005.

Venezuela has, in fact, suspended itself from the Kimberly Process through its failure to issue a KP certificate for more than 18 months, while at the same time allowing the diamond trade to continue, the PAC report pointed out. PAC said that recent efforts to halt illicit mining in Venezuela have led only to violence and death. A combination of high taxes, ineffective currency controls and bureaucratic ineptitude has driven Venezuela’s diamond dealers underground, it added.

The report, titled The Lost World: Diamond Mining and Smuggling in Venezuela, highlights the prominent role played by Brazilians, and the route through the Brazilian city of Boa Vista, in the smuggling of diamonds from Venezuela to Guyana. It recommends that 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.

PAC noted that “Venezuela should be expelled from the KPCS if the Kimberley Process wishes to maintain any semblance of order and integrity”. “It is unconscionable that the Kimberley Process did not ‘notice’ that Venezuela had exported no diamonds for 18 months,” it added. PAC also asked the KP to get tough on Brazil and Guyana, and has called for an urgent review of Brazil’s new regulations.