Photo: AP / Ariana Cubillos, FILE
Venezuela's central bank started refining gold in Turkey after a new wave of international sanctions were placed on the Latin American government for the questionable re-election of President Nicolas Maduro and human rights violations, according to The Hurriyet Daily News.
The country's mining minister announced the policy on Wednesday after Caracas could no longer carry out such operations in Switzerland so they have been buying gold from small miners in southern Turkey.
Venezuela then uses it as monetary gold to increase its international reserves which have fallen as the country's economy continues to tumble amid hyperinflation.
“This is an agreement established with Turkey and the Venezuelan central bank,” said Victor Cano. “It’s being done by allied countries because imagine (what would happen) if we sent gold to Switzerland and we are told that it has to stay there because of sanctions.”
Cano did not say which Turkish companies were involved in the plan or clarify how much gold had been refined there but they did admit the Venezuelan government purchased 9.1 tonnes of gold from a number of small miners earlier this year.
After the gold is refined in Turkey, it is sent back to Venezuela where it joins the central bank's portfolio of assets.
The United States Treasury placed a number of sanctions against Venezuela for violating human rights and undermining democracy in the presidential election in 2018 and the Maduro-created Constituent Assembly in 2017.
Those sanctions also included a blanket ban on U.S. citizens from buying any newly issued debt from Venezuela and its state-owned companies.
Maduro has dismissed concerned the economic woes of Venezuela are self-created, claiming there is an "economic war" being waged by Western forces, including Trump, which has prompted the widespread shortages of food, medicine, vaccines while the country endures an inflation rate which topped 46,000 percent last year.
Cano made the statements after opposition leader Julio Borges claimed the government was selling gold to Turkey to try and make up for the declining production capabilities of oil, which have long powered the OPEC nation's foreign exchange.
“There is no gold contraband to Turkey,” Cano said while dismissing Borges' claims.
Turkey'st Statistics Institute had official data which showed the country's gold trade with Caracas began in 2018 and that at least 20.15 tons of gold were imported up to May 2018, though no gold has been exported to Venezuela.
The ongoing economic and political crisis in Venezuela has sparked one of the worst mass exodus movement of migrants ever seen in South America as Colombia and Brazil receives thousands every day who are seeking out everyday needs, including food and medicine.
-WN.com, Maureen Foody
