The Venezuelan government is facing multiple roadblocks as it tries to navigate political turmoil and the aftermath of last month’s twin earthquakes, which killed several thousand people. Alongside domestic challenges, Caracas is also confronting an extraordinary dispute with the Bank of England, which is holding 31 tons of Venezuelan gold bars deposited in 2008 and refusing to release them.

Venezuela’s gold has remained locked up for years because of a long-running conflict tied to the UK’s refusal to recognise Nicolás Maduro as the winner of the country’s 2018 presidential election, as a recent CNN article highlights.

The Bank of England stores gold reserves for multiple countries in one of the world’s largest vaults, which is said to hold about 400,000 gold bars.

The dispute has already gone through a lengthy legal battle, and Caracas now sees a possible opening after Maduro’s forced removal during a January 2026 US military operation and subsequent detention in New York.

Since Maduro’s capture, former deputy Delcy Rodríguez has become acting president and has moved to restore ties with Washington, including opening the oil sector to US investment and releasing some political prisoners.

She is hoping relations with the UK will follow the same path, and she has appealed publicly for the gold to be released for reconstruction.

“That gold belongs to our people and should be used to address the terrible, tragic consequences of this double earthquake,” Rodríguez said on state television this month. “Venezuela has the resources to recover, to get back on its feet,” she added.

Rodríguez has also written to King Charles III asking for the gold to be released, though as a constitutional monarch he does not intervene in political disputes.

It remains to be seen what the fate of Venezuela's commodities will be under a new political leadership, not only in Caracas but London as well.

The UK’s position has been shaped by its non-recognition of the previous Venezuelan leadership, with then-Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper responding to a question about the release of the gold following Maduro's ousting that the Bank of England must act independently while the government’s principles centred on stability and transition to democracy.

Cooper, however, has since been replaced as foreign minister following the UK’s appointment this week of a new prime minister, Andy Burnham, with the American outlet noting that it’s too early to know what position her successor – Ed Miliband – will take on the issue.

By Nazrin Sadigova

Source: caliber.az