VENEZUELA: A Bald Hugo Back From Cuba; Will Move $6.3b Cash, $11b Gold Assets...To Russia, China, Brasil; Gold Miners Will Be Nationalized.

 

             LINK CHANGE/BLOOMBERG


     Some potentially ominous news was revealed...even as President Hugo Chavez claims to be in good spirits after his second chemo treatment in La Habana...and return to Caracas.
     "I'm doing very well. In fact, I've never been better," he said.
      But Venezuela will transfer $6.3b in cash...and $11b in gold...from Europe...and move it to undisclosed Russian, Brasilian, Chinese, Indian, South African banks...as well as a Caracas vault.
     Why?
     Speculation abounds.
     Perhaps as collateral to China for billions in loans; or, perhaps to prevent confiscation if it fails to pay foreign firms after nationalizations; and, maybe, most ominously...to prevent "pillaging" of reserves by western powers...which it condemned in Libya...if an elections...or canceling of an election...fails to suit western powers.