Gold buried in the ground amounting to approximately the same as their current reserve whiles a company willing and able wait and wait to extract is and share the wealth..... get with the program Vennies allow the building of a major mine

CARACAS (Dow Jones)--Venezuela's dollar reserves closed the month of March at $28.6 billion, down $1.1 billion from February, data from the central bank show.

The lower reserves leave Venezuela with weaker protection as it faces financial pressures triggered by the collapse in the price of oil, which accounts for 93% of Venezuela's exports and 50% of state revenue.

The central bank, after persistent demands from President Hugo Chavez, started in recent years to set an optimum level of international reserves and transfers any excess reserves to the Fonden development fund, which isn't subject to oversight by the legislative branch and is controlled by the president.

The central bank transferred in January $12 billion from its international reserves to the Fonden, the figure requested by Chavez.

The president said then the optimum level for the central bank's international reserves was $30 billion.

-By Darcy Crowe, Dow Jones Newswires; (58) 212 905 6304; darcy.crowe@dowjones.com