Skip to content
June 25, 2022
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Reddit
  • Telegram
  • TikTok
  • LinkedIn
Orinoco Tribune – News and opinion pieces about Venezuela and beyond

Orinoco Tribune – News and opinion pieces about Venezuela and beyond

From Venezuela and made by Venezuelan Chavistas

Primary Menu
  • News
  • Opinion
  • About us
    • About us
    • Who we are – Becoming a Volunteer
    • Editorial guidelines for contributors
    • Our Sources
      • Venezuelan Sources
      • International Sources
    • Contact us
  • Categories
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Security and Defense
    • International
      • Africa
      • Asia
      • Europe
      • Oceania
      • US/Canada
    • Latin America and ALBA-TCP
      • South America
      • Central America and the Caribbean (+Mexico)
    • Ideology-Commune-Labor
    • Health-Education-Sport-Culture-Technology
    • Solidarity and Social Movements
    • OT Originals
  • Support Us
    • Tax Deductible Donations: AfGJ Fiscal Sponsorship Program
    • Patreon (recurrent donations)
    • PayPal and Credit Cards
Light/Dark Button
YouTube Channel
  • Home
  • News
  • Venezuela Moves one Step Closer to Retrieving Gold Seized by the Bank of England
  • Europe
  • International
  • News

Venezuela Moves one Step Closer to Retrieving Gold Seized by the Bank of England

October 7, 2020

October 7, 2020.-  VENEZUELA’S Bolivarian government is a step closer to retrieving its $1 billion (£800 million) gold reserves stored in the Bank of England after it won an appeal over the claim today.

The legal challenge, brought by the Banco Central de Venezuela (BCV), overturns a previous ruling that upheld Britain’s recognition of United States-backed opposition leader Juan Guaido as “interim president” of Venezuela.

The Bank of England froze the gold reserves after the Tory government fell into line behind the US in refusing to recognise Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, who was re-elected in late 2018, and backing the right-wing pretender instead.

Venezuela sought a court order in July for the urgent release of the reserves to help the country cope with the Covid-19 crisis — it has struggled in the wake of tough sanctions imposed by the US, bent on securing regime change.

RELATED CONTENT: BCV Hopes to Regain Control of Venezuelan Gold in the Bank of England

The High Court found that a statement by former foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt in February 2019 constituted “a formal statement that Her Majesty’s Government now recognised Mr Guaido as the interim president of Venezuela pending fresh elections,” thus preventing the fund’s release.

But, in a judgement delivered remotely today, the Court of Appeal found that Mr Hunt’s statement had been “ambiguous, or at any rate less than unequivocal.”

The case will now go back to the High Court to determine whether Britain recognises “Mr Guaido as president of Venezuela for all purposes and therefore does not recognise Mr Maduro as president for any purpose.”

Venezuela says the reserves will be directly transferred to its United Nations development programme in order to acquire healthcare equipment, medicine and food.

Venezuela Solidarity Campaign national secretary Francisco Dominguez said that the release of the gold would “massively improve the situation” in the country and added that it would set “an important precedent” on the release of reserves held in other European countries, thus “denting the blockade.”

“Venezuelan people have suffered massively because of these sanctions, which are illegal, in the middle of this pandemic, where as a consequence … between 2017-2018, 40,000 people died unnecessarily — and the Venezuelan people have been denied insulin, special treatment for cancer, hypertension, HIV and all manner of other things,” he said.

RELATED CONTENT: UK Court of Appeals Overturns London High Court Decision on Venezuelan Gold, Lawyer Says

The campaigner described the court’s decision as a “positive development” that will strengthen the case of Venezuela’s government in the next court cases.

Sarosh Zaiwalla, senior partner at law firm Zaiwalla & Co, which is representing the BCV board, said the previous High Court decision had “led to a completely unrealistic situation” whereby Caracas could no longer access its own gold reserves.

“This cannot have been a correct outcome, and I am delighted that the Court of Appeal has now overturned that finding and directed that this important matter now receives further consideration,” he said.

“The Covid-19 pandemic remains a serious threat, and very valuable assets, which are being needlessly tied up in this litigation, are desperately required by the people of Venezuela, who are already suffering as a result of continuing international sanctions on the country.

“I hope that there can now be a swift conclusion to this case,” he said.

Mr Dominguez stressed that the case was “by no means a 100 per cent victory” and called on campaigners to continue “putting pressure on the court to do the right thing.”

 

(Morning Star)

Want More?

Don't want to be a victim of the Algorithm?

SIGN UP TO RECEIVE OUR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER WITH ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT VENEZUELA

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

orinocotribune
Website | + posts
  • orinocotribune
    https://orinocotribune.com/author/orinocotribune/
    International sabotage attempt against Plan Vuelta a Patria denounced
  • orinocotribune
    https://orinocotribune.com/author/orinocotribune/
    Alí Rodríguez Araque dies
  • orinocotribune
    https://orinocotribune.com/author/orinocotribune/
    López Obrador defends Nicolás Maduro during interview
  • orinocotribune
    https://orinocotribune.com/author/orinocotribune/
    The black market Dollar misfortune of the Venezuelan economy
Tags: Banco Central de Venezuela (BCV) Bank of England Juan Guaido UK Venezuela Venezuelan gold

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

Continue Reading

Previous Previous post:

Nicaragua 2018 – Uncensoring the Truth

Next Next post:

The Crime of Barbados

Tax deductible donations

One time donations

Recurrent donations

Calendar

June 2022
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
27282930  
« May    

NEWS: Most Viewed 72 Hours

Categories

Subscribe to Our Weekly Newsletter

We keep your data private and share your data only with third parties that make this service possible. Read our Privacy Policy.

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

OPINION: Most Viewed 72 hours

We are on Telegram


Receive our news directly in your cellphone or PC, join us on our TELEGRAM channel: https://t.me/OrinocoTribune1

Download TELEGRAM, click the link above and then press the JOIN button.

We are Copyleft not Copyright


Creative Commons License
All Orinoco Tribune's work is free to use and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

We are on Reddit


If you are more into REDDIT, join our Orinoco Tribune Community.
Just click below and then click JOIN
https://www.reddit.com/r/OrinocoTribune/

 

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Reddit
  • Telegram
  • TikTok
  • LinkedIn
Copyleft, No rights reserved.