The Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV) agreed with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to allocate part of the gold deposited in the Bank of England to purchase medicines, medical equipment and food to face the COVID-19 pandemic.
The information was released for the Reuters agency by the president of the BCV, Calixto Ortega: “We agreed with the United Nations Program for them to receive the funds directly”, said Ortega.
“It is not my word, it is not that I am saying that I am going to buy food, medicine and medical equipment. It is the United Nations that is saying it, and they are not going to lend themselves to anything dark, to anything that is not neutral or independent”, he added.
Venezuela will defend the mechanism discussed in March with the UNDP for $ 1 billion before a court in London where they claim that the Bank of England refuses to follow instructions to sell part of the Venezuelan gold, he said.
Ortega said he expects an expedited trial, of a few weeks, for the Bank of England to deliver part of the gold that has been requested since 2019 to face the economic emergency under the pandemic.
Executive Vice President Delcy Rodríguez denounced on Tuesday that the Bank of England is holding 31 tons of Venezuelan gold with the purpose of stripping Venezuela of its assets, in collusion with a right-wing group led by deputy Juan Guaidó.
Guaidó and his group have been in charge of promoting a maneuver of looting Venezuelan assets abroad that compromises the oil subsidiary Citgo in the United States, and Monómeros in Colombia.
Given this maneuver against the country, which seeks to overthrow the legitimate government of President Nicolás Maduro, legal actions are being taken to recover these assets from the Republic.
This Thursday will be the hearing in the English courts, to denounce the proceeding of the Bank of England, whose only task is to be custodian of the gold.
Venezuela will also raise the complaint before the International Criminal Court, for extermination and against humanity, in order to exercise actions against those who from the Bank of England are seeking to violate the sovereign immunity laws on the country’s international reserves.
