President Chavez plans to nationalize Venezuela's gold industry

CARACAS (BNO NEWS) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez announced on Wednesday that he will approve a new law to nationalize the country’s gold industry, the El Nacional newspaper reported.

“Soon I will propose a law to start taking the gold zone and I count with you, because there’s anarchy, mafia and smuggling in that zone,” Chavez said.

Chavez further stated that he has the laws which allow him to nationalize the gold industry in Venezuela, which includes exploration and exploitation of the metal as well as other related activities.

The president urged the minister of Planning and Finance, Jorge Giordani, and the president of the Venezuelan Central Bank (BCV), Nelson Merentes, to speed up the process of transferring the Venezuelan gold reserves.

Giordani explained that the government’s decision to nationalize the gold reserves seeks to diversify the resources and enable them for the national economy’s development. “We are going to nationalize the gold and we are going to turn it into an international reserve, because its value keeps increasing,” he said.

Venezuela has around $12 billion in gold reserves, Chavez said. “We cannot allow them to keep taking it away.”

Chavez returned to Venezuela on Saturday after having completed a second round of chemotherapy in the Cuban capital of Havana. The left wing president has been in office since 1999 and plans to run for re-election in late 2012 despite his disease.

Wednesday, August 17th, 2011

Source: WireUpdate.
Link: http://wireupdate.com/wires/19527/president-chavez-plans-to-nationalize-venezuelas-gold-industry/.