Switzerland is one of the main global gold refining hubs and hosts five major international refineries.This makes it a usual destination for the processing of precious metal coming from different countries.
Although there is no official confirmation regarding the final destination of all the exported Venezuelan gold, specialists maintain that part of it may have ended up in the hands of financial actors. Meanwhile, another fraction was reportedly converted into small bars and sent to Asia or other markets.
Customs data show that there have been no recorded exports of Venezuelan gold to Switzerland from 2017 to 2025. The cutoff coincides with the imposition of European Union sanctions against officials of the chavista regime accused of human rights violations and of undermining the democratic order.
Switzerland adopted those sanctions at the beginning of 2018. Although the measures didn't include a general embargo on Venezuelan gold, analysts agree that the collapse in exports is explained by the fact that the Central Bank had already exhausted a large part of its available reserves.
Suiza ordenó el congelamiento de los activos de Maduro tras su detención.
In parallel, this week Switzerland ordered the freezing of assets belonging to Maduro and to 36 people in his inner circle. This was due to the capture of the former president by United States forces and his transfer to New York, where he faces charges of drug trafficking and narco-terrorism. Swiss authorities didn't report the value or the origin of those funds, or whether they are related to the gold exported years ago.
The episode once again exposes one of the central contradictions of the chavista regime: while it claimed to govern in the name of the people and economic sovereignty, it liquidated the State's strategic assets abroad, without those operations resulting in lasting improvements for the population or in a sustainable economic recovery.
Venezuela transported gold worth approximately USD 5.2 billion to Switzerland between 2013 and 2016.This information was revealed by Swiss customs data reviewed by the Reuters agency. In total, the South American country sent 113 metric tons of gold to Swiss territory in that period.
The records indicate that the shipments began the same year Maduro assumed the presidency, after the death of Hugo Chávez, and continued until 2016. The gold originated from the reserves of the Central Bank of Venezuela, in a context of growing economic deterioration and an urgent need for foreign currency.
Maduro envío millones de dólares a bancos suizos.
The role of the Central Bank and the sale of reserves
According to information from the Swiss public broadcaster SRF, the exported gold came directly from the Venezuelan Central Bank. During those years, the bank significantly reduced its reserves in order to sustain the functioning of the economy and obtain hard currency.
Market analysts state that it was a forced sale of strategic assets. "There was a sale of gold due to financial stress between 2012 and 2016. Much of that metal ended up in Switzerland," explained Rhona O’Connell, a market analyst at the firm StoneX.
Once in Swiss territory, the gold was reportedly destined mainly for processing, refining, certification, and subsequent redistribution to other international financial markets.
Switzerland, a key center of the global gold market
Maduro fundió las reservas del Banco Central para sostener su modelo nefasto
