The Central Bank of Venezuela will sell 15 tons of gold to the United Arab Emirates to get euros in cash

CARACAS (Reuters) –
Venezuela plans to sell 15 tons of gold from the coffers of its central bank in the United Arab Emirates in the coming days. The goal of the Nicosia Maduro government is to get euros to fight the lack of liquidity affecting the solvency of the country to finance imports, according to a senior Venezuelan official informed of this transaction.

The sale of gold reserves to support the bolivar, the Venezuelan currency, began on January 26 with the shipment in charter flight of the company Solar Cargo three tons of this precious metal, said the official .

A third shipment of 11 tons of monetary gold is planned for February, the source added.

In total, it is planned to sell, by February, some 29 tons of gold from the bank located in Caracas, under the command of Chavez Calixto Ortega. This was said by the manager of maneuvers, who preferred to remain anonymous to speak freely.

At the end of last November, Venezuela had a total reserves of 132 tons, divided between its central bank and its bank of England, according to the data of the entity presided over by Ortega.

The Maduro government resorted to the sale of gold after the fall in oil production, the country's macroeconomic collapse and US sanctions, which affected the average income and prevented Venezuela from To access a loan. external

The United States, which supports the opposition led by Juan Guaidó to force Maduro to withdraw and call elections, warned bankers and traders to avoid negotiating with the Maduro government for Gold sales, and the Venezuelan national oil company PDVSA was sanctioned to limit its purchases and sales of crude oil to the United States.

Sen. Marco Rubio said Friday on Twitter at the US Embbady in the US that he had "information" on the visit of a pretended French citizen working for Noor Capital in Caracas in order to "repair the gold bullion of Venezuela".

"I hope you have informed them that any air cargo service making shipments will be punishable," Rubio said.

The central bank of Venezuela has not responded to the request for information.

The news adds to the speculation that a few days ago when
A Russian plane landed at Maiquetia airport, outside Caracas, and opponents of the Maduro government said the plane was there to be part of the gold reserves. Venezuelan.

The lawmaker opposed to the Maduro government, Jose Guerra, former director of the central bank, said at the time that sources from the monetary authority had informed him that the plane had was leased to transport 20 tons of gold, or about 15% of the metal reserves in Caracas.

In the Central Bank of Russia denied that there was a flight to Venezuela with the intention of moving gold.