UK Appeal Court Removes Guaido's Access to Venezuelan Gold

The United Kingdom Court of Appeals Monday annulled the decision that granted opposition lawmaker Juan Guaido control of 31 tons of gold that Venezuela has deposited in England.

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In September, Venezuela filed an appeal against the decision of the British High Court that prevented President Nicolas Maduro's administration from accessing monetary reserves valued at more than US$1 billion, which are deposited in the Bank of England in London.

Previously, in July, High Court Judge Nigel Teare granted self-proclaimed president Guaido control of those monetary reserves, arguing that the United Kingdom recognized him as the "president in charge" of Venezuela.

Once Judge Teare's decision was known, the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV), chaired by Calixto Ortega, reported that it would immediately appeal this decision, which it classified as "absurd and unusual."

On Monday, in his ruling on this case, Judge Stephen Males said that the U.K.’s recognition “is to my mind ambiguous, or at any rate less than unequivocal,” as reported by Bloomberg.

Sarosh Zaiwalla, a lawyer for the President Maduro-appointed central bank, commented that the previous decision of a British lower court was not correct as it granted control of the monetary reserves to "a group of people living outside of Venezuela, to whom the Venezuela's Constitutional Court had already ruled that they had no legal authority."

"The Court of Appeal has now... ordered that this important matter receive further consideration," he added, referring to the decision of the judges that an investigation be carried out to determine factually what the diplomatic relations existing between the United Kingdom and Venezuela are.