
Juan GuaidĂł claimed to be Venezuelaâs president from 2019-22. Photo: WEF.
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Juan GuaidĂł claimed to be Venezuelaâs president from 2019-22. Photo: WEF.
By John McEvoy – Apr 23, 2023
Britain put tens of thousands of pounds towards Juan GuaidĂłâs efforts to access $2bn worth of Venezuelan gold held in the Bank of England, new data reveals.
Britainâs Foreign Office spent ÂŁ80,697 in public funds supporting Venezuelan opposition figure Juan GuaidĂłâs campaign to seize roughly $2bn of gold held in the Bank of England, documents obtained by Declassified show.
The data highlights the extent to which the UK government has assisted GuaidĂłâs efforts to access Venezuelan state assets, with the Foreign Office investing both political and financial capital into this case.
The UK Government Legal Department initially declined to provide this spending data, stating: âWe will not comment further due to ongoing legal proceedingsâ.
However, the Foreign Office later released the data following a Freedom of Information request from Declassified.
Why Is Venezuelaâs Gold Still Frozen in the Bank of England?
Freezing Venezuelaâs gold
The Bank of England first refused to release Venezuelaâs gold in 2018, citing doubts over the legitimacy of the NicolĂĄs Maduro government, which has been in power since 2013.
GuaidĂł declared himself Venezuelan president in January 2019, using Article 233 of Venezuelaâs constitution to argue that Maduro had abandoned his post and consequently left an âabsolute vacuum of powerâ.
As head of Venezuelaâs National Assembly, GuaidĂł claimed he was next in line to fill this vacuum.
The US government moved quickly to recognise GuaidĂł and shore up international support for regime change in Venezuela. As former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrote, this was an opportunity to remove âa twenty-first-century violation of the Monroe Doctrineâ, a policy which treats Latin America as Washingtonâs backyard.
The UK government provided the Bank of England with âpolitical air coverâ to keep the gold frozen
With a coup in Venezuela now firmly on the cards, the UK government provided the Bank of England with âpolitical air coverâ to keep the gold frozen.
This came in the form of a ârobust letterâ from the Foreign Office to the Bank âoutlining the growing doubts over Maduroâs legitimacyâ, according to the recently published diaries of former minister Alan Duncan.
The Trump administrationâs hostility to Maduro apparently weighed heavily on Britainâs decision-making process.
According to former US National Security Adviser John Bolton, then UK foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt was âdelightedâ to help Washingtonâs destabilisation campaign, âfor example freezing Venezuelan gold deposits in the Bank of Englandâ.
Legal battle
On 4 February 2019, the UK government formally recognised Guaidó, triggering a protracted legal battle over who could lay claim to the gold.
The legal process centred on whether the UKâs stated recognition of GuaidĂł allowed it to transfer Venezuelan state assets to his âinterimâ government.
Throughout this case, the UK government insisted at every turn that it recognised GuaidĂł â and not Maduro â as Venezuelan president. In turn, GuaidĂłâs lawyers argued that he was authorised to represent and control the assets of the Venezuelan Central Bank in London.
In 2021, for instance, the UK government acquired the services of Sir James Eadie QC and Jason Pobjoy (of Blackstone Chambers) and Sir Michael Wood and Belinda McRae (of Twenty Essex) â some of the UKâs top lawyers â to present its case in support of recognition of GuaidĂł.
At the Supreme Court, these lawyers argued on behalf of the UK foreign secretary that Britainâs recognition of GuaidĂł was âclear and not ambiguousâ.
The implication of this argument was that the UK government could treat GuaidĂł for all intents and purposes as Venezuelaâs president, and that Venezuelaâs gold reserves could thus be transferred to GuaidĂł and his representatives.
Professor Francisco RodrĂguez is a leading Venezuelan economist who has advised its national assembly on financial matters and currently teaches at the University of Denver.
He told Declassified: âDespite a long-established legal and diplomatic tradition that recognition is only granted to governments with actual control over a countryâs territory, the British government went out of its way to make a convoluted case before courts that it was recognizing the GuaidĂł interim government even though it was not engaging with it diplomatically.
He added: âIn contrast to the United States, the UK maintained an embassy in Caracas and interacted with the Maduro-appointed ambassador, refusing to accept credentials from GuaidĂł-appointed diplomats. In principle, these decisions would in and of themselves have implied unequivocal recognition of the Maduro government.
âHowever, the UK insisted before the Supreme Court that it recognized GuaidĂł as Venezuelaâs president, an argument that had as its only practical effect the blocking of the Venezuelan Central Bankâs access to part of its international reservesâ.
Dramatic Development in Venezuela’s Fight for Gold Seized by Bank of England
âNothing to do with this governmentâ
The Foreign Officeâs use of public funds to support GuaidĂł in court casts serious doubt on the governmentâs persistent claims that the gold case was not a political affair but a matter for the Bank of England and the courts.
In February 2019, Duncan declared in parliament that the freezing of Venezuelaâs gold reserves âis entirely down to the Bank, as an independent Bank of Englandâ.
He added: âIt is nothing to do with this Government. We are not empowered to, nor should we in any way attempt to, influence the decision of the Bank of England.â
Shortly after, Treasury minister Robert Jenrick affirmed in a similar vein that: âHolding gold reserves on behalf of any foreign central bank is a matter for the Bank of England.â
However, the politicised nature of this case seems difficult to ignore. Indeed, the UK governmentâs recognition of GuaidĂł was a key prerequisite for the Bank of Englandâs refusal to release Venezuelaâs gold.
The UK also has long-standing oil interests in Venezuela. In February 2020, a secretive Foreign Office team named the âVenezuela Reconstruction Unitâ met in Caracas to discuss âUK involvement in the energy sector of Venezuelaâ.
Britainâs decision to freeze Venezuelaâs gold thus formed part of a wider effort to remove the Maduro government and reassert Western domination over its key industries.
The data obtained by Declassified will make it increasingly difficult for the UK government to counter claims that the gold case has been political at its core.
Independent journalist @theCanaryUK, @jacobinmag, @ColombiaReports , & International History Review.