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Opinions of Wednesday, 28 September 2011

Columnist: The Emperor

Ghana Needs To Take A Cue From Hugo Chavez!

On September 21, 2011, Libya and Qaddafi's close ally and brother, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, announced that he is nationalising Venezuela's gold mining industry. He intends to bring home Venezuela’s $11 billion in gold reserves currently held in US and European banks. Thus, setting an example for African states like Ghana to follow suit. President Hugo Chavez said that the recall of the gold reserves is intended to help protect the oil-producing country from the economic woes in the United States and Europe, adding he wants to eliminate the "dictatorship of the U.S. dollar". "This is a healthy decision! We're going to start to bring back our gold to the Central Bank," Chavez said in a telephone call, which was broadcast live on Venezuela’s state television. It wasn't clear how soon the overseas gold reserves would be brought to Venezuela!

The United States and Europe have recently stolen more than $150 billion from Libya's reserves. Hence, the Venezuelan government’s decision to retrieve its foreign assets. The Central Bank of Venezuela has reported that the country has a total of $28.6 billion in gold reserves. President Hugo Chavez indicated that $11 billion worth of the gold is held in other countries. Venezuela’s Central Bank President Nelson Merentes said on the television that the decision to move the gold reserves was being taken out of "prudence". "At the time of these disturbances, it's preferable to recover our assets, in this case the gold, and have it here in the vaults," Merentes said.

According to a report by the Venezuela's finance Minister Jorge Giordani, Venezuela has nearly $4.6 billion of its gold reserves in the Bank of England. The report also indicated that additional Venezuelan gold reserves are held by the US bank J.P. Morgan Chase, British banks Barclays, HSBC and Standard Chartered, France's BNP Paribas and Canada's Bank of Nova Scotia. As for Venezuela's other international non-gold reserves, officials are seeking "more diversification in countries that have more solid economies," Merentes said. He mentioned China, saying it has a "shield of protection" against a potential deepening of the international economic crisis.

Giordani and Merentes, who appeared together on television, said they proposed to Chavez that Venezuela's nearly $6.3 billion in international non-gold reserves, such as bank deposits and bonds--should be reviewed and transferred from US and European banks to countries they consider safer. They mentioned China, Russia and Brazil, amongst other countries in Asia and Latin America. President Hugo Chavez stated that he would soon issue a decree for the nationalisation of the gold mining industry so that the government could increase control over the gold produced. "We're going to nationalise our gold! We’re going to convert it, among other things, into international reserves to back Venezuela's currency," he said.

The Russian company Rusoro Mining Ltd. controls one of Venezuela's most important gold mines in the country's southeast. In February, the Venezuelan government cancelled the gold mining concession of a Canadian company, Crystallex International Corp. Chavez said that the decree will allow the government to "begin to take over the gold zone," where authorities have periodically carried out operations to evict wildcat miners from illegal mines. The President said that the Venezuelan government aims to fight the "mafias" who have taken some of the country's gold.

For more: Visit: http://www.mathaba.net/news/?x=628087

PS: Let’s take back our country. Vote CPP

Welcome 2 the New age of Consciousness!

Source: The Emperor