Maduro’s Master Plan for Venezuela: Swapping 29 Tons of Gold for Euros with the UAE
https://www.ccn.com/maduros-master-plan-swap-29-tons-of-gold-with-the-uae-for-euros/
Venezuela is moving a shipment of 29 tonnes of gold, worth approximately 1 billion Euros or 1.2 billion dollars, to the United Arab Emirates for sale. UAE will pay cash Euros for the trade, which has riled US officials currently engaged in dethroning Socialist President Nicolas Maduro. 3 tonnes were already shipped on January 26th, according to a source speaking exclusively to Reuters.
EUROS FOR LIQUIDITY
After a record financial crisis in the South American country, compounded by decreased oil production, the Venezuelan government plans to use the Euros to ensure liquidity for international trading. Trading has been all the more complicated thanks to US sanctions. The sanctions gun may now switch aim to the UAE and anyone else who transacts in Venezuelan gold, according to Senator Marco Rubio of Florida:
The US presently backs an alternative Venezuelan leader named Juan GuaidĂł. The US government is pressing harder and harder for Maduro to resign, which he has refused to do. Reports of government repression and general disorder have been flowing out of the country.
The move is a departure from former President Hugo Chavez’s stance that Venezuela should have control of its physical reserves. Reuters says that in 2011, Chavez recalled 160 tonnes of gold from foreign possession.
Venezuela has also reportedly offered to pay off Russian debts with gold. As CCN’s Christina Comben writes:
The reputable news source reported that Guerra had “dropped a bombshell on Twitter,” saying that the Russian Boeing 777 that landed in Caracas on Monday was there to “spirit away 20 tons of gold from the vaults of the country’s central bank.”
However, it seems the answer might be that a Russian jet is transporting the gold to the UAE for sale.