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That treasure is on deposit with the Bank of England. However, the British justice did not recognize Nicolás Maduro as the right holder of the bullion, but ordered a further investigation.
A commercial court in London had estimated in July that Guaidó was “unequivocally recognized” as head of state with all powers by the United Kingdom, when, together with fifty countries, London considered him in February 2019 “interim constitutional president of Venezuela until credible presidential elections can be held ”.
This gave him, according to this decision, control of the gold in the national reserve kept in the vaults of the Bank of England and prevented the Maduro government from recovering a part of the funds, valued at 1,000 million dollars, which he claims he needs to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
Denouncing a “blatant piracy theft,” the Venezuelan executive appealed the decision to the London Court of Appeal, which determined on Monday that the case is not so simple.
In the opinion of Judges Lewison, Males and Phillips, the statement of the then British Foreign Minister, Jeremy Hunt, recognizing Guaidó was ambiguous.
And before proceeding with this matter of strong diplomatic and financial implications, it must be clarified if and what power was actually granted to him.
“It will be necessary to determine if His Majesty’s government recognizes Mr. Guaidó as president of Venezuela for all purposes and, therefore, does not recognize Mr. Maduro as president for any purpose” or if “it also recognizes Maduro as the person who de In fact, he exercises some or all of the powers of the President of Venezuela, ”the judges wrote in their decision.
During three days of trial focused on extremely technical issues at the end of September, the Caracas lawyers strove to show that by not breaking diplomatic relations with Maduro, and continuing to maintain their respective ambassadors, London “recognizes even if it does not approve” of his government.
Technical studies to deliver
The magistrates thus returned the case to the commercial court ordering that it carry out an in-depth investigation.
After knowing this setback, the representative of Guaidó in London, Vanessa Neumann, that he had celebrated the July sentence as a “victory of the people”, did not respond to AFP’s request for comment.
Nor was it possible to immediately contact the opposition leader’s lawyers in London.
For Sarosh Zaiwalla, representative of the Maduro administration, “the verdict in the first instance had led to a completely unreal situation in which the president of the Central Bank of Venezuela and his board of directors were told that they have total control of the offices of the BCV and the daily operations of the central bank in Caracas, which could no longer manage important deposits of the central bank in London ”.
Instead, access to gold “was being handed over to a group of people living outside of Venezuela, who the Venezuelan Supreme Court had already ruled had no legal authority,” he added.
The government of Nicolás Maduro, through the Central Bank of Venezuela chaired by Calixto Ortega, has been trying unsuccessfully since October 2018 – long before the appearance of the coronavirus – to recover part, 30 tons, of the gold kept in London.
But Venezuela’s National Assembly, dominated by the opposition and chaired by Juan Guaidó, appointed its own ad hoc leadership of the Venezuelan central bank. And although that appointment was invalidated by the Venezuelan Supreme Court, that did not prevent him from asking London not to hand over the bullion, ensuring that they could be embezzled by a regime that describes as “kleptocrat”.
Caught between two rival groups, the Bank of England asked justice that, before deciding the final destination of the gold, it be resolved as a preliminary question who has its control.
The existence of two rival “presidents” has long made it difficult for the Venezuelan government to access the funds it has in the international financial system.
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