With the increasing price and value of gold, the Bolivarian government of Hugo Chavez has decided to “bringing home” 211 tons of gold that is currently held in international banks. The popular Venezuelan president also announced that the gold industry in the country will be nationalized.

The move is expected to help Venezuela protect itself from the global economic crisis that is wreaking havoc around the world, especially in the Third World and Developing World. There are also plans to remove its international cash reserves from the US, various Asian and European countries.

The Central Bank of Venezuela expects the move in increase its gold reserves from US$ 7 billion to US$ 18.3 billion.

With the price of gold at an all time high it is absolutely a wise move to bring gold reserves to be held domestically. Chavez said, “We are protecting ourselves from a market that is disturbed”.

Even though the US ended the dollar convertibility to gold in 1971, many governments keep gold reserves to defend their national currencies from an “increasingly unstable U.S. dollar”. This is a matter of self-defence, against the increasing instability of capitalism.

The populist leader also said they are reviewing “the laws allowing the state to exploit gold and all related activities …we are going to nationalize the gold and we are going to convert it, among other things, into international reserves because gold continues to increase in value.”

In 2010 the law was changed to allow gold mining companies to send 50% of its gold abroad. The remaining 50% was to be sold to the publicly-owned Venezuelan Central Bank. The law keeps the gold mined from Venezuela kept in the Bolivarian Republic to protect its own gold reserves. Once the law is passed gold will remain in state hands.

Some people who think they know how the world works have been claiming that Chavez is stealing the gold. These people believe that the business owners who mined the gold are the owners of it. Well, the gold is a natural resource the comes from the land of Venezuela; land that belongs to the people of Venezuela. The theft is gold being taken from its people who own the land. Tens of thousands are exploited to obtain a wealth that is simply placed into the hands of exploiters and then taken from the nation.

I believe that the real reason why the gold is being brought home is because Chavez is no fool and he has seen what has happened to Libya. As the African nation was being invaded the US and its accomplices in Europe stole $US 200 billion in international assets. This move was intended to bankrupt the county and weaken its ability to fight the imperialist invasion against it.

Chavez is no thief, the US ruling class and its allies in Europe are the real robbers. Chavez also publicly advised other Latin American nations to do the same.