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LatinNews Regional Monitor: Andean Group - 06 November 2018
In brief: Venezuela
* Two Venezuelan public officials who asked to remain anonymous have told Reuters news agency that Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro is trying to bring 14 tonnes of gold held in the Bank of England back to the country. Last week, US National Security advisor John Bolton announced that the US government would apply new sanctions limiting gold exports from Venezuela, as part of efforts to increase the pressure on the Maduro government to stop repressing political dissent in the country. According to one of the Venezuelan goverment officials, the plan has been held up for almost two months due to the difficulty in obtaining the insurance to move such a large gold cargo. Venezuela’s central bank (BCV) and the Bank of England have declined to comment. Venezuelan economist Tamara Herrera, who was interviewed by Reuters, believes that if Maduro decided to carry out operations with the gold, he would have to negotiate with allied countries due to the sanctions being imposed. Angel Alvarado, a Venezuelan opposition legislator, also expressed concerns over the operations being carried out by the Maduro government. In a tweet posted on the same day as the Reuters reprort, Alvarado wrote that Venezuela’s president would sell “grandma’s jewels” to Turkey to “sustain his festival of inefficiency and corruption”. The BCV previously repatriated gold in 2011, when former president Hugo Chávez (1999-2013) decided to retrieve the reserves stored in the US and Europe.
