The Court of Appeals of England has annulled the ruling that granted the “ad hoc” administration of the opposition deputy Juan Guaidó access to the 31 tons of gold that Venezuela has deposited in the Bank of England, and which are being claimed by the government of that country.
In July, the British High Court denied the country access to 31 tons of its gold, valued at more than one billion dollars, deposited in the vaults of the Bank of England, in London, because it acknowledged the self-proclaimed “president in charge” Juan Guaidó as the head of the Venezuelan government, and not Nicolás Maduro.
With this new ruling, the Court of Appeals affirms that the verdict was erroneous in considering that the acknowledgement of Guaidó by the British Government as de jure president excluded the possibility of recognizing Maduro as the de facto president.
In view of this situation, the court ordered that the justice system carry out a detailed investigation explaining in detail the diplomatic relations between Venezuela and the United Kingdom, to determine whether London recognizes that Maduro continues to exercise “de facto” powers as head of state.
What happened?
In July, after the decision of the British High Court Judge, Nigel Teare, who stated that Guaidó was “unequivocally” the “interim constitutional president” of Venezuela and that his “ad hoc” administration was the one that could access the reserves, the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV) appealed this decision, which was catalogued as “absurd and unusual”.
Among the grounds for the defense of the South American country to appeal the ruling was that London had not broken diplomatic relations with Caracas, and that both governments maintain their ambassadors in their capitals.
Both countries are in a legal battle dating back to 2018, when the Venezuelan government asked for access to its reserves, to honor its financial commitments amidst the US sanctions, and it was denied. Later, in 2019, it made a new request for the gold and there was another refusal by the Bank of England, which alleged that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson only acknowledged Guaidó as a legitimate ruler.
After that decision, the opposition deputy appointed José Ignacio Hernández as his legal representative abroad and asked the bank’s authorities not to hand over the ingots to Maduro’s government, alleging that “they would be used for corrupt purposes”.
Already in May of this year, the BCV had filed a lawsuit against the Bank of England with the aim of obtaining and selling part of its gold in order to transfer the resources to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and thus acquire food and medicines, necessary for the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
