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Venezuela selling billions in U.S. bonds

*Chavez responds to the CIA "black ops" trying to assassinate him...

Venezuela selling billions in U.S. bonds
By UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
Published October 5, 2005

NEW YORK -- Venezuela has sold tens of billions of dollars in U.S. government bonds and used the money to buy European government bonds.

The transfer of Venezuela's $30.4 billion in foreign reserves out of U.S. government securities and into European securities appears to have been motivated by politics, the Financial Times said Wednesday.

President Hugo Chavez disclosed his actions last week, shortly before the central bank "verified" the action, and this week the central bank's director confirmed the activity.

"The fact that Chavez announced it several days before the central bank board verified the move leaves the market to suspect that political pressure was exercised at some point," said Vitali Meschoulam, emerging markets strategist at HSBC Securities in New York.

Jose Guerra, until recently economic research chief at the central bank, said key details of the transfers have been cloaked in secrecy -- even if the motive is clear.

"No one knows how much has been moved. Yesterday it was $10 billion, today it's $20 billion," he said. "But the reason is eminently political, and it's a further example of the central bank's loss of autonomy."


LINK: http://www.wpherald.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20051005-075921-8789r