Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s government began repatriating the nation’s gold reserves from European banks on Friday as the first shipment arrived on a flight from Paris.
Troops guarded the shipment in a caravan of at least five armored trucks that carried the gold to the Central Bank in Caracas.
A group of government supporters cheered and waved flags as the caravan passed, with soldiers holding their rifles at the ready. Two light tanks escorted the shipment.
Photo: Reuters
Chavez announced in August that his government would retrieve more than 211 tonnes of gold held in US and European banks.
Chavez announced earlier on Friday that the first of the gold was on its way.
“It is coming to the place it never should have left ... The vaults of the Central Bank of Venezuela, not the bank of London or the bank of the United States,” Chavez said. “It is our gold.”
He said that previously the gold was held in Britain, but did not specify the bank nor say how much was in the shipment.
Chavez has said his decision to repatriate the gold reserves is aimed at helping to protect Venezuela from economic troubles in the US and Europe.
Economist Pedro Palma, who is a professor at the Institute of Higher Studies of Administration, said he saw no economic justification for moving the gold.
“From an economic point view, it is the same to have it here as in England. The reserves will not change because of this,” Palma said.
It appeared to be an attempt to show the public “heroic actions” on the part of the government, he said.
Chavez’s opponents have called the plan costly and ill-advised.
Central Bank of Venezuela president Nelson Merentes said the gold had been held abroad since the late 1980s as backing for loans requested from the IMF by prior governments.
Having the gold in Venezuela, “is a guarantee” for the country, -Merentes said.
“If there is some problem in the international markets, here it’s going to be safe,” he said.
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