Loading ...Gold and Venezuela
It began before Maduro. Under Hugo Chavez then President of Venezuela confiscated Junior gold explorerer Krystallex Gold asset. Google it. In 2011 it was ready to start production.
Also Chavez ordered country gold 200 tons stored in NY to be delivered to them.
When investing in mining company country matters.
How a country goes corrupt : “it took time for them to have their people in place,” Sound familiar like in US now.
Miami Herald article: Pillaging El Dorado: Here is how Maduro and his cronies siphon out Venezuela’s gold
“When they first arrived, they found that the oil industry was totally mechanized, controlled by rules and accountability instruments that they would have to evade. That created hurdles for stealing the wealth and it took time for them to have their people in place, and it was after a long process that they could start pillaging,” the officer who spoke under condition of anonymity said.
“But with gold the situation is different, because with gold there is no supervision. If the complex processes one thousand kilograms of gold, nobody is there to audit it. And they distribute the loot among themselves,” he added.”
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/venezuela/article236664243.html
Article from MH to be taken with a huge grain of salt. The author is a shameless liar.
Is there corruption in Vz? Yep. Just as it has been forever everywhere. Under Perez in the 90s, prior to Chavez, most of the proceeds of oil production was siphoned off by the local oligarchy with the help of corrupt management and into the coffers of foreign entities – been there seen it with my own eyes. Once, mid 90s, I’ve met a bunch of Americans doing maintenance work at major oil rigs at the El Tigre oil fields. These guys where complaining day in day out about the poor state of equipment and how hard it was dealing with local management because of widespread corruption. Prior to Chavez PDVSA was used as cash cow for local oligarchs and affiliates.
Same is it with mining, be it diamonds or PMs, the entire thing was corrupt to the core with illegal mining activities financed by local oligarchy and foreigners all over the place, especially down in the Grand Sabana close to the Brazilian and Guyanan borders – been there, seen it.
True, Vz Gov’s made a lot of mistakes but that’s what people do – making mistakes.
Vz is said to be a socialist country, that is utter nonsense. How come the biggest – by far – food supplier in Vz, Emprensas Polar still being run as a family business owned by the Mendoza family? With Lorenzo Mendoza, head of EP being a major supporter of the ‘opposition’. How come most of Vz’s arable land is still being owned by private interests, aka local oligarchy? Same is it with Media, smelters …. most firmly in opposition to the current government. Kind of a strange dictatorship where opposition is allowed to control major Media outlets and production of basic goods.
In 2019 alone Vz’s has had assets worth 20-30 billion USD blocked, aka stolen from them, the author doesn’t mention any of this.
One particularly disgusting incident is the withholding (non-delivery) of 450k prepaid (9 million USD) insulin shots for Vz patients because of sanctions against a ‘dictator’ in the name of freedom and democracy. I could go on but rather stop here so Fully won’t feel the urge to knocking at my front door shouting ‘NO POLITICS’! 😉
Well Bertone
Sounds like you understand Venezuela better than anyone
Thanks for taking a risk and posting this.
Horrible what goes on in that poor country.
Seems like there is No way out of the corruption that comes from all sides.