This archive report was first published on 2 July 2020.
On July 2, 2020, a U.K. judge made a ruling that denied Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro access to the country's gold reserves at the Bank of England. The gold, valued at over $1.8 billion, had been frozen since 2018 due to international sanctions.
Mr. Maduro had been trying to withdraw the gold since 2018, but the Bank of England refused to hand it over to the Bank of Venezuela. In early 2019, Juan Guaidó, the Venezuelan opposition leader, urged the then-prime minister, Theresa May, to grant him access to the reserve, but she rejected the request.
British officials have repeatedly sided with the United States in maintaining sanctions against Venezuela. In his recent book, John Bolton, former national security advisor to President Trump, recounted how in 2019, Britain's foreign minister at the time, Jeremy Hunt, was delighted to cooperate on steps to freeze Venezuelan deposits in the Bank of England.
The ruling comes as Venezuela's economy struggles to survive, relying on the world's largest oil reserves but devastated by American sanctions. The country's economy has been in survival mode, with the already dismal situation made worse after oil prices plummeted in March.
