Thanks, ify, sloop and g4 for this retrieval.

"as well as "protection rights" on more than 92 billion ounces of golden ore through the Venezuelan Mining Corporation."

I think we know where about 20 million of those ounces are located.

The article states that the "365 tonnes" represents 70 % of VZ's gold reserves, which means VZ has about 521.4 tonnes of gold reserves. Those are metric, spelled tonnes, and that equates to 16,763,399 troy Ozs. At the end of Dec, 2012, the value of that gold would have been in the vicinity of 27.7 $Billion at $1,650 per Oz. The article, therefore, is not all that correct, when it states that in 2013 the value of that gold would have fallen by about 5 $Billion. The actual fall would have been about 7.2 $Billion, that's a fall of about 26%, and that is a correct reflection of gold price action in calendar 2013. But what's the dif, eh? It's only a couple $Billion, and when you're making stuff up all day long, who cares anyway?

I guess this over 500 tons of gold reserves reflects a lot of the gold VZ repatriated from storage in Western G7 banks last year.

Does anyone know the status of VZ with regard to the World Bank at this time? When Chavez was still alive, he paid the World Bank off and supposedly withdrew from the World Bank contractual relationship. However, reading about ICSID enforcement procedure, I notice that the World Bank relationship can have positive coercive influence in helping to realize successful enforcements. Thus checking the World Bank web site I see VZ listed as a signatory/participant. Are they in or out, does anyone know?

thelongrunner