Venezuela launches legal proceedings against Bank of England to try to force it to release €930m ($1bn; £820m) worth of Venezuelan gold
The legal wrangling comes amid fears about the ability of Venezuela's crumbling healthcare system to handle the outbreak.The Venezuelan hospital where there's barely running water, let alone medicine
The UN told the BBC in an emailed statement only that it had been approached by the Venezuelan bank to explore such mechanisms.Why is Venezuela's gold in the UK? Central banks of a number of nations use it to store their national gold reserves and Venezuela is one of them.Despite the country's oil riches, Venezuela's economy has been in freefall for years due to a combination of government mismanagement and corruption, further exacerbated by international sanctions.
The government of President Nicolás Maduro turned to selling off some of the gold reserves kept at the central bank in Venezuela to its allies in Turkey, Russia and the United Arab Emirates.But the US, which does not recognise Mr Maduro's government, last year warned"bankers, brokers, traders and facilitators" not to deal in"gold, oil, or other Venezuelan commodities stolen from the Venezuelan people by the Maduro mafia".
In January 2019, the Bank of England refused the request. All it said publicly was that it did not comment on customer relationships.The decision, however, came just days after Mr Maduro's rival, Juan Guaidó, had declared himself president, arguing that the 2018 election which returned Mr Maduro to power had been fraudulent.
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