CNN tracks trail of 'bloody gold' that leads to Venezuela's government

Venezuela boasts the largest oil reserves in the world, but gold is increasingly its lifeblood. In the area around Venezuela's gold mines, gold has replaced the near-worthless bolivar, with even the cost of a haircut quoted in gold. In Caracas, it allows Nicolás Maduro to allegedly buy the military's loyalty to his embattled government. And abroad, Venezuelan gold is sold by the ton -- one of the country's few remaining means of foreign exchange.

To extract the precious metal, miners must turn rocks into dust, from sunrise to sunset, under the brutal rule of a state-sponsored network of violent gangs and corrupt military, say several witnesses and a senior military source with knowledge of the security situation in the Orinoco Mining Arc.

CNN's Isa Soares reports.

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