British Supreme Court partially accepts Guaidó’s appeal on Venezuelan gold

The British Supreme Court partially accepted the appeal filed by the Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó on whether he or the illegitimate Chavista president, Nicolás Maduro, should control the gold bars deposited in the Bank of England, valued at some 1,600 million euros.

The highest British court referred the case to the Commercial Division of the High Court to determine as a last resort to whom the delivery of the gold is authorized.

In Monday’s ruling, the court noted that a previous statement by the British government “it was a clear and unequivocal recognition of Mr. Guaidó as president of Venezuela”, So this part of the appeal was accepted by this court.

The Supreme added that the British courts are inclined to accept that the British government does not recognize Maduro as president of Venezuela “for no purpose”.

On the other hand, he considered it necessary to evaluate whether the opinions of the Venezuelan Supreme Court in relation to the position of the opposition leader are null or have no effect, for which he asked the Commercial Division of the Superior Court to establish it.

Thus, the process passes to the Commercial Division of the Superior Court, which must determine whether to authorize or deny the delivery of the gold to the board appointed by Maduro, which is the one that initially filed a demand for arbitration when the bank refused to execute its request. to liquidate the reserves.

The English bank had refused to execute that request due to the British government’s position in favor of Guaidó.

The Supreme Court, the highest British court, gave its opinion on Monday after examining the appeal filed by the BCV board appointed by Guaidó, which requested that an unfavorable ruling issued last October by the Court of Appeals be annulled.

This court had rejected that the British Government recognized the opposition leader in a “unmistakable“As president of Venezuela for all purposes in a 2019 statement, where he was described as”interim constitutional president”Until legitimate elections are held.

The BCV board appointed by Maduro wants to sell close to 1,000 million euros of those assets to transfer them to the UN in order to acquire equipment against the COVID-19 pandemic.

After hearing the ruling, Guaidó expressed his satisfaction with the Supreme Court’s ruling, determining that on February 4, 2019, the United Kingdom recognized Guaidó as interim constitutional president of Venezuela until there are valid elections.

For his part, Maduro’s lawyer in London, Sarosh Zaiwalla, pointed out that his client hopes to continue with this case in order to demonstrate that the BCV board is the only valid authority to deal with Venezuelan assets that are abroad.