Weeks after Venezuelan intelligence crushed a secret plot to overthrow President Nicolás Maduro, now Venezuela has sued the Bank of England for refusing to give back its Gold. President Nicolas Maduro has also announced that Venezuela will sue US in International Criminal Court (ICC) for severe damage caused by the economic sanctions.
Venezuela’s Central Bank has launched legal action to force the Bank of England to release more than $1 billion in gold held in its coffers to battle the Covid-19 outbreak.
The claim, submitted in a London court on May 14, says that Caracas needs the gold back to buy healthcare equipment, medicine, and food to address the “COVID-19 emergency” in the country, the document seen by Reuters said. Once it is sold by the Bank of England (BoE), the funds are transferred to the United Nations Development Programme.
The gold reserves of many developing nations are held in BoE vaults, with Venezuelan assets on its deposit reportedly worth around $1.7 billion. However, Venezuela has been unable to retrieve its assets from London due to political pressure from the US, which has been seeking to oust President Nicolas Maduro.
“The foot-dragging by the Bank of England is critically hampering Venezuela and the UN’s efforts to combat COVID-19 in the country,” Sarosh Zaiwalla, a London-based lawyer representing the central bank, said as cited by Reuters.
In January, the BoE rejected Venezuela’s request to withdraw $1.2 billion in gold. Bloomberg reported at the time that the refusal came after the request of high-profile US officials to help cut off the Maduro government from its overseas assets.
Hugo Chavez, the former President used to roam the streets of Venezuela in tanks filled with Gold bars displaying to his countrymen how their Gold and Oil would be used to pull the nation out of the Petrodollar system. Chavez is assassinated before fulfilling his dream and Venezuela has gone through some 20 years of US sanctions that has progressively strangled her economy. President Nicolas Maduro has announced that Venezuela will sue US in International Criminal Court (ICC) for severe damage caused by the economic sanctions. Interestingly, it is an India Russia partnership that is helping Venezuela bypass US sanctions.
Meanwhile, Venezuelan intelligence has crushed a secret plot to overthrow President Nicolás Maduro funded by US billionaires and organised by the former security chief of British billionaire Richard Branson, an ex-Green Beret running the private security firm Silvercorp USA, in Florida. The ringleader, retired Venezuelan General Cliver Alcalá, is now jailed in the US as one of the architects of a narcoterrorist conspiracy.
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