Mystery of hit on Tren de Aragua leader: is it linked to US mining plans in Venezuela?

A miner shows stones laced with gold at La Culebra goldmine in El Callao, Bolívar state, south-eastern Venezuela. Photograph: Juan Barreto/AFP/Getty Images

At 10am on 9 June, a huge explosion rattled Las Claritas, a ramshackle town on the edge of a vast goldmine carved out of the Venezuelan Amazon.

“The blast was so powerful that my sister’s house shook, and she was 10 kilometres away,” said one miner, who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons. “Imagine the impact.”