For some of us the gold of Venezuela, in Venezuela, even though worth less, is pure profit

Sir FastFT refers to the losses derived from that “Hugo Chávez… no fan of what he called the “dictatorship of the dollar”, and forced the central bank to hold most of its reserves in bullion rather than greenbacks.”, “Venezuela faces double blow as gold and oil prices slide” November 5.

But what the report misses is that Hugo Chávez forced the central bank to hold most of that gold… in Venezuela! That made these reserves much less operative, much less negotiable… something many of us who despair to see so many resources being dilapidated in our country, find not all that bad.

In February 2012, in an article published in El Universal I wrote: "I must express great satisfaction with the arrival of our gold to Venezuela, at least what came was saved, at least for the time being. Where that gold was stored it could easily disappear, in a flash, with the government just writing a check."

PS. After writing for El Universal for 14 years in July 2014 I was one of the first four censored by the new pro-government owners. (So you see FT is not alone in its opinions of me :-))