The High Court of London in the dispute between the Bank of Venezuela and the Bank of England to return 930 million euro worth of gold bullions stored in the UK to Caracas, recognized the legitimacy of the presidency of the opposition leader Juan Guaydo, follows from the court decision.
“Her Majesty’s Government recognizes Mr. Guayido as the legitimate interim president of Venezuela and therefore does not recognize Mr. (Nicolas) Maduro (the legitimate president)”, – said in the decision issued by Judge Nigel Thier.
Maduro is sending the European Union ambassador from Venezuela.
Thus, the court effectively dismissed the Venezuelan claim. Caracas planned to obtain the return of British gold bullions worth 930 million euros, which the authorities intended to send to fight the coronavirus.
The Central Bank of Venezuela has already promised to appeal against this decision. Its representatives called the position of the English court absurd.
At the end of January last year, Bloomberg, citing sources, reported that the Bank of England refused to give Caracas 1.2 billion dollars in gold bars. One unnamed source told the agency that the decision not to give out the gold was taken after senior U.S. officials, including U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and U.S. President’s National Security Advisor John Bolton, pressured colleagues in the UK to block Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from accessing his assets abroad. Later, Maduro said that the Bank of England holds 80 tons of gold belonging to the Venezuelan authorities.
It was also reported in the media that Guayido asked Teresa May, who was then British Prime Minister, not to return gold bars to the government of President Maduro.
In Venezuela, at the beginning of last year, mass protests began against the current president, Nicolas Maduro. After the riots began, the speaker of the opposition parliament, Juan Guayido, illegally proclaimed himself interim head of state. A number of Western countries, led by the United States, have declared recognition of Guaido. In turn, Maduro called the head of parliament “the puppet of the United States. Russia, China and several other countries supported Maduro as the legitimate president of Venezuela. Moscow called “presidential status” of Guaido non-existent.