Garrison commander Jorge Luis Garcia Carneiro, a military officer still loyal to Chavez, has refused to give precise figures of how much gold his men took. He claims, however, that at least ten metric tonnes (321,500 troy ounces) of gold bullion currently remain under his heavily-armed 24/7 control in Fuerte Tiuna, and that the order to remove it from the Central Bank came directly from Hugo Chavez himself.
The lack of precise numbers makes it difficult or impossible for independent controllers to verify the government's accounting if the gold is ever returned.
Immediately when the gold was moved to Fuerte Tiuna, Hugo Chavez and three of his cabinet ministers also moved there, and now sleep permanently in lodgings in the Circulo Militar, within the protected perimeters of the garrison.
International credit rating agencies are now expected to downgrade Venezuela once again, as chaos in the Central Bank and the uncertainty of the country's gold reserves reveal the true state of affairs in the country's increasingly desperate Chavez government.
Preliminary data released Dec 27 2002 by the Venezuelan Central Bank showed that the country's economy contracted by an estimated 10 percent to 12 percent in the fourth quarter of 2002, the largest quarterly drop in the past 50 years. [End] www.MilitaresDemocraticos.com
The list of 6,000 items deemed essential by the exchange control commission, or Cadivi, includes various food products, medicines, personal hygiene items and industrial raw materials. The list was posted on Cadivi's Web site.
Most of the items on the list are not produced in Venezuela, which imports more than half of the goods it consumes, including almost all the medicine used by Venezuelans. U.S. dollars must pay for those imports.
Restrictions on imports form part of a new currency exchange control system that President Hugo Chavez's government is gradually implementing. ***