National security adviser John Bolton tweeted that traders should not deal in gold, oil or other commodities “being stolen” from the Venezuelan people, as opponents of Maduro’s government worried the government was surreptitiously moving to ship gold reserves abroad. In that context, the arrival in Caracas of a Boeing 777 plane from Moscow on Monday led to speculation that Maduro’s government was preparing to ship more gold reserves out of the country, following shipments of $900 million of gold to Turkey last year. Venezuelan lawmaker Jose Guerra, a former central bank economist, told the opposition-run National Assembly his understanding was that the Nordwind plane would take some gold reserves to Russia. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said Trump and Guaido agreed to maintain regular communication after Venezuelan authorities opened an investigation that could lead to Guaido’s arrest. “Do you want to be a coward?” Maduro yelled in a call and response session with hundreds of soldiers on Wednesday.

Source: bd News24 January 31, 2019 02:15 UTC