We watched the story reported by Swiss Info (below) unfold in real time over the last two days on TeleSur, VTV and CNN (English & Spanish) here in Venezuela. The Swiss Info report tries to explain the Chávez government's decision to return Venezuela's gold bullion to Venezuela with the following twist:
"Banking officials call the move a big risk that could be prompted, in part, by litigation to recover damages from the nationalization of Venezuela's oil fields -- a bill that could range from $10 to $40 billion."
In other words, these "banking officials" (whoever they might be) are suggesting that Venezuela owes $10-40 billion to corporations that once stripped Venezuelan petroleum under agreements with corrupt regimes in the pre-Chávez decades. Under those agreements, petroleum companies paid 0-1 percent in royalties for the oil they took with most of that money going to the corrupt ruling class which now forms the Venezuelan opposition.
Venezuelan Opposition: The role of the Venezuelan opposition as imperial stooges has become more apparent in the last 48 hours with their nominated spokesman, one Julio Montoya a member of the National Assembly from Zulia state complaining about the tranfer of gold and reserve funds in foreign banks. It´s fair to ask why the opposition here objects to the removal of the nation´s gold from England, Switzerland and the United States especially considering the grave economic problems that currently threaten the U.S., British and EU economies. Montoya objected to transferring the reserves to other Venezuela-friendly countries, maintaining that it would put the nation´s wealth closer to the hand of "Chávez' cronies." The implication of course is that all this is part of a plan by Chávez to loot the national wealth. Montoya provided no evidence for this indirect accusation and the opposition has no sound arguments against this measure, their motive simply being their hatred for President Chavez.
Nationalizing the Venezuelan Oil Fields: This much the Swiss Info article gets right: It's the oil fields that have been nationalized and that statement in itself is so true that its truth can be seen in its triple redundancy.
- The oil fields exist within the sovereign boundaries of the Venezuelan state and therefore they naturally belong to Venezuela.
- They were already "nationalized" before Chávez came into office only to allow them to be freely exploited by foreign petroleum companies.
- The Chávez government put teeth into that nationalization by re-negotiating contracts with the oil companies.
The western media has converted the term "nationalized" into a dirty word, akin to theft or robbery from the corporations. Their corruption of the term essentially comports with the concept of globalization which would erase national boundaries, eliminate national sovereignty and make private corporations the new owners of a nation's natural resources. Well - the globalists are learning that "we're not there yet" and that their dream may never be realized, thanks to leaders like President Chávez and the Venezuelan people who know what rightfully belongs to them.
Over the last decade, the Chávez administration re-negotiated contracts with oil companies doing business here in a legal and constitutional process, offering them a percentage of the fruits of Venezuelan oil, with the state retaining control of the oil fields and around 60 percent of the profits from them. All the companies drilling and pumping oil here agreed to these arrangements except for two oil companies: Exxon-Mobile which took Venezuela to court in London and lost their case and Conoco-Philips which once had Condoleeza Rice as a member of their Board of Directors.
Venezuela's Gold Reserves: Venezuela is among the countries with the largest gold reserves - 365 metric tons of gold worth over $18.3 billion. More than half of Venezuelan gold has been stored in the U.S. and Europe. The country’s international reserves stood at about $6.3 billion, including 59.17% in Swiss banks, 17.9% in the U.K., 11.31% in the U.S. and 6.48% in France.
The Risk of Foreign Governments and Corporations Freezing Venezuela's Reserves, Currently Located in Their Banks: This morning Rafael Ramírez, the future Minister in charge of the nationalized oil fields, was interviewed in VTV. He stated,
"Venezuela could not leave its international reserves in the US or European banks as these economies are 'fragile' and therefore they had to be moved to banks not at risk such as those in Russia, Brazil and China."
The author of this article, Robert Johnson, suggests that foreign countries holding Venezuelan money and gold could freeze Venezuelan assets in the same way they have recently frozen Libyan assets. Western countries also made this move against Iraq and Iran and more and more it's becoming a standard practice. Why? Because they can. Make no mistake: It is simple armed robbery.
On the other hand, Johnson faults the Chávez government for relocating funds and returning Venezuelan gold bullion in order to protect the country against freezing of their assets in foreign banks. Question to Johnson: What kind of leader would President Chávez be if he did not safeguard the nation's wealth against a clear and present danger? For an answer to that question, he need only look north of here to Washington.
- Les Blough in Venezuela
Just days after returning home from another round of chemotherapy in Cuba, Hugo Chávez has ordered billions of dollars in cash and hundreds of tons of gold to be relocated. According to The Wall Street Journal, Venezuela will move the cash from Swiss and English banks to Russia, China, and Brazil while moving hundred of tons of bullion from abroad into its own central bank vaults. No official statement has been released, but following the U.S. debt ceiling crisis senior Venezuelan officials have been vocal about "a crisis of uncertainty" with their dollar based monetary system. Banking officials call the move a big risk that could be prompted, in part, by litigation to recover damages from the nationalization of Venezuela's oil fields -- a bill that could range from $10 to $40 billion. Documents released by Venezuala's foreign minister also mention "the powers of the North" have "pillaged" Libya's European held reserves and notes a plan should be made to avoid a similar fate. This leads to further speculation about Chávez's cancer, next year's elections, and potentially drastic political maneuvering that could incur international sanctions. Following the announcement, three lines of credit for $4 billion were extended to Venezuala from China, Russia, and Brazil -- with a portion of the Russian funds specifically slated for military use. Source: Business Insider