EASTORA REPORT | Thirty-one tonnes of Venezuelan gold are sitting in vaults beneath London. Delcy Rodríguez says they belong back in Caracas.
“I will not give up demanding that the Bank of England return our gold,” Venezuela’s interim president said. “Enough excuses. This gold belongs to Venezuelans.”
Rodríguez has ordered the Foreign Ministry and attorney general’s office to pursue the bullion through legal and diplomatic channels, reviving a dispute that has lasted for years.
The gold became inaccessible after Britain stopped recognizing Nicolás Maduro’s government, turning what had once been part of Venezuela’s central bank reserves into the subject of a prolonged legal battle.
Its value has since risen sharply. Recent negotiations have placed the 31 tonnes at roughly $4 billion — money that Caracas increasingly sees not as dormant reserves, but as potential reconstruction capital.
That matters after the twin earthquakes that struck Venezuela in June, causing an estimated $19.6 billion in physical damage. The government has said recovered foreign assets could help rebuild homes, hospitals, power infrastructure and other damaged services.
The politics around the gold have also shifted. Rodríguez’s government and a faction of the opposition have agreed to work together to recover the reserves, and discussions have included moving the bullion from London to the United States under a structure that could allow it to support reconstruction financing.
But the gold has not moved.
The Bank of England has maintained that further legal clarity is required before any transfer can take place.
Rodríguez calls that continued delay theft. For Caracas, the dispute is no longer only about sovereignty over national reserves.
It is about whether billions of dollars in Venezuelan gold can be turned into money for rebuilding Venezuela.