A disposable state? Genesis of a rentier micro-state in the mining zone of Las Claritas (Venezuela)

In Venezuela, numerous armed groups known as sindicatos have taken advantage of the weakness of the central state to control mining areas. In so doing, these groups have established forms of rentier micro-states by maintaining sovereign functions (police, tax, customs, etc.) and taking over public services (water, electricity, health, education, transport, etc.). In this contribution, we provocatively ask to what extent such rentier micro-states can be deemed disposable. Through an ethnographic and documentary study of the Las Claritas mining area, we consider that, if they are indeed disposable, it is not so much because the Venezuelan state can dispose of them at will (although a coup de force by the Venezuelan army should not be excluded), but rather because the political organization required for mining can cease to exist once the subsoil resources have been depleted, thereby turning these areas into vulnerable and potentially ephemeral rentier micro-states.