Venezuela wants its gold back from Bank of England vaults
Fri Aug 14 2026
After nearly two weeks of U.S.-backed negotiations, Venezuela’s government and opposition have managed to agree on one significant demand this week: they want US$4 billion in gold reserves back from the Bank of England.
Since 2018, the United Kingdom has declined to recognize Venezuela’s revolutionary socialist government, in effect blocking its access to some 31 tonnes stored in the Bank of England vaults. The funds have been the subject of a lengthy court battle.
In a joint statement on Wednesday night, the two sides said the funds would be used for reconstruction following earthquakes in June, which killed more than 6,000 people.+
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“Both sides will focus efforts on working to recover Venezuela’s international reserve assets held at the Bank of England,” the statement said.
The country’s economy, already in chaos from decades of mismanagement, corruption and U.S. sanctions, is still reeling from the earthquakes.
On Wednesday, the country’s central bank said the disaster had contributed to monthly inflation rising to 19.9 per cent in July, from 13.8 per cent in June. Economists estimate annual inflation at around 575 per cent.
Interim President Delcy Rodríguez said last month that she had written to King Charles to request that the gold be released from the vaults under Threadneedle Street. An opposition figure involved in the talks told the FT that “transparency mechanisms” would be placed on the efforts to recover the gold “so that it doesn’t get stolen by the government.”
“There’s no naivety on our part,” the figure said. “We know that Delcy Rodríguez’s interim government are not democratic reformers.”
The Bank of England declined to comment. It has been awaiting legal clarity on who has control over the Venezuelan bullion before releasing the gold. The U.K. government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The United States has suspended some sanctions on Venezuela and is working closely with Rodríguez — who was Maduro’s vice-president — to open up the country’s vast natural resources to foreign investment.
In the joint statement, the two sides also agreed to begin discussing reforms to Venezuela’s justice system. The talks, which do not include the opposition’s most popular leader María Corina Machado, have divided both the opposition and hardline supporters of the government. Machado, who won last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, has been based in Washington since late last year, and was blocked from returning to Venezuela following the earthquakes.
Following Maduro’s capture, Venezuela is slowly regaining access to international funds, starting with about US$350 million that was tapped in July from a tranche held at the International Monetary Fund, after the country restored relations with the fund this year.
The country is estimated to have a sovereign debt pile of about US$240 billion, making ongoing restructuring efforts the largest in history, the FT reported in June.
Rodriguez’s government is also seeking access to about US$4.6 billion of “special drawing rights” — IMF reserve assets that the fund’s members can exchange into other currencies. In previous, abortive talks with the government years ago, Venezuela’s opposition also agreed that the country should be able to tap those funds.
Source: https://financialpost.com