New Argentine gold shipment reportedly heading overseas — MercoPress

New Argentine gold shipment reportedly heading overseas

This is the third such shipment during President Milley’s term.

According to reports from Buenos Aires, a video of an armored truck carrying about 1,500 gold bars from the Central Bank of Argentina (BCRA) to Ezeiza International Airport went viral on Monday, and it is speculated that the third such shipment, worth about $250 million, has left for London. There were no special security personnel around the vehicle on the highway leading to the airport.

Luis Toto Caputo, Argentina’s economy minister, said it was a smart move by the BCRA. “This is a very positive move by the central government. Today, gold in the central bank is like real estate in a bank, you can’t do anything with it. On the other hand, if you keep it outside the bank, you get a return. And the reality is that the state needs to maximize the return on its assets. Locking gold in a central bank and not doing anything for the state is negative. It’s better to keep it outside the bank so you get something paid for it,” Caputo said in a television interview a month ago, after the previous shipments of gold were shipped on June 7 and 28.

In this context, opposition lawmakers asked Caputo to explain what will happen to the gold in the end. “Finally, ‘the only way’ is that Ezeiza’s campaign slogan seems to have become a reality,” stressed lawmaker Leandro Santoro.

“On July 29, together with Senator Oscar Parrilli, I sent a public information request and note to Luis Caputo, asking for explanations regarding the transfer of gold assets abroad by Argentines,” recalled Senator Juliana Di Tullio (UxP – BA). “We have not received a response yet. If this situation continues, I will take legal action”, she also warned.

Congressman Sergio Palazzo, who is also the Secretary General of the Banking Union, was the first to denounce these actions of the Liberal government of President Javier Milei. He asked the BCRA for information and received the following response: “…any data related to geographic location… could endanger the security of these assets and therefore the support of the implemented monetary and exchange rate policy, the support of deposits and the security of the financial system…”

Palazzo explained on X that according to Article 8 B of Law 27.275, it is prohibited to disclose “…information that could endanger the proper functioning of the financial or banking system…” and therefore refused to provide any further information.

“So much secrecy only makes it clear that they took the gold, they don’t want to tell us what they did or intended to do with it, and the government doesn’t want citizens to know about the actions of their government,” he continued.