After three years of complex litigation in London, the case about who can access the more than 30 tons of gold from the Venezuelan reserves kept in the Bank of England it was returned to the starting square on Friday.
Three judges from the London Court of Appeal rejected an appeal filed by the Venezuelan authorities against the last of several rulings that granted control of the ingots, valued at 1,900 million dollars, to the opposition Juan Guaidó.
However, this does not mean that Guaidó or his entourage can access the funds. It could even alienate them, since the opponent is no longer recognized in the United Kingdom as interim president of Venezuela.
Nevertheless, The British government also does not recognize Nicolás Maduro, considering his 2018 re-election fraudulent.
From the beginning of this case, some experts estimate that the bullion could simply remain in the vaults of the Bank of England until elections are held in Venezuela recognized by all parties.
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Adding complexity to the case, the magistrates considered that, “in light of the change in the diplomatic landscape”, the commercial court that initially tried him must now “determine the future course of this litigation”.
In a complicated succession of rulings, appeals and counter-appeals over the past three years, the English court determined that Guaidó was the legitimate representative of Venezuela, having been recognized by the British government when he proclaimed himself “interim president” in his capacity as president of the legislative assembly in 2019.
Also that the ad hoc board of the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV) that he had appointed could give instructions to the Bank of England as a client, and therefore could request that it deliver the gold.
And that the English justice did not recognize the decisions of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) of Caracas that invalidated said appointments considering, among other things, that the judges of that court are under the orders of President Nicolás Maduro.
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This last decision, taken in July 2022 by Judge Sara Cockerill of the commercial division of the London High Court, was appealed last October by the official BCV, chaired by Calixto Ortega.
But while waiting for the Court of Appeals to analyze the case, the political reality changed in Venezuela. At the end of December, the opposition assembly elected in 2015 — and still recognized by countries like the United States and the United Kingdom that consider the 2020 legislative elections illegitimate — voted in favor of dissolving Guaidó’s interim government. This decision was accepted by governments such as Washington and London.
In their decision this Friday, judges Sarah Falk, Stephen Males and Stephen Phillips of the Court of Appeal confirmed all the previous judicial decisions considering that when they were taken they corresponded to the political reality of the moment, that is, the recognition of the opposition by London as a representative legitimate of the country.
The decision thus returns to Cockerill’s hands more than three years after he began to examine the issue.
Ortega’s BCV sued the Bank of England in 2020 to force it to deliver the bullion, assuring that it urgently needed the funds to alleviate the covid-19 pandemic.
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But he, caught between the two rival groups, responded that he was receiving contradictory instructions from another BCV, the one designated by Guaidó, who said he feared that the money would go into the pockets of “kleptocrats” or serve to repress the population.
Consequently, the institution asked the British courts to determine whom it should obey. More than three years later, the $1.9 billion question remains unanswered.
AFP
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