As the Corona-virus pandemic spreads throughout Venezuela, the Latin American oil-rich boycotted nation is looking to access gold reserves which are being held by the UK’s central bank.
Due to Westminister not recognizing the government of Venezuela as legitimate, the country’s legal representatives are looking to justify their claim to its national assets.
The Bank of England (BoE) has been accused of “putting lives at risk” after denying a request from Venezuela to release more than £800m from the South American country’s gold reserves currently withheld by the UK.
Legal representatives of the Central Bank of Venezuela (CBV) have claimed that the BoE is holding the nation’s gold “hostage” as they face a “humanitarian emergency” from the Corona-virus pandemic.
The Bank’s lawyers say that the urgency of the situation within the country, which is currently under blockade by the USA in an effort to remove the current administration from office, placing additional harm on the oil-rich nation.
The authorities say they plan to give the funds to the United Nations Development Program in order to purchase “healthcare equipment, medicines, and basic food supplies.
But the two countries are currently in a legal dispute over who controls the bullion reserves currently being stored in the London bank’s vaults.
The UK High Court will hear a dispute next week regarding whether the board of the Venezuelan bank appointed by the country’s president, Nicolas Maduro, has the ability to order the sale of the gold.
The Bank of England serves as custodian for the bullion of various countries and holds a total of around 400,000 bars of Venezuelan gold worth £200 billion, which it has so far refused to provide.
The Venezuelan central bank is seeking a court order for 930m euros (£835m) of gold to be released immediately.
Self-proclaimed interim president Guaidó has been permitted a position at the High Court proceedings and has set up his own rival organization claiming to be the board of the BCV.
Guaido already pocketed billions of frozen PdVSA assets to his accounts in Switzerland.
The BCV claims that the situation has effectively given the High Court the responsibility of ruling who the legitimate government of Venezuela is.
The Foreign Office has declined to say whether it considers Maduro or Guaidó to be the president and instead highlighting the recognition as Guaidó by the Theresa May government in February 2019.
Venezuelan authorities will tell the High Court that since Britain maintains diplomatic relations with Maduro’s government, recognition and sovereignty over the gold assets should be decided based on who has “effective control over the territory of the state.
The US regime and some Western countries have endorsed opposition leader Juanita Guaido and slapped crippling sanctions on Venezuela. Russia, China, Turkey and most other nations have supported the official Maduro government in Caracas.
Sputnik / ABC Flash Point Gold News 2020.
The Pirates of the Caribbean?
Captain Crook and his Followers are Planning to Keep Venezuela’s Gold or fork it over to US puppet Guaido, just like they did with billions of Bolivarian dollars kept in crooked US banks?