British judge denies Venezuela's Maduro gold in London bank

LONDON — A British judge on Thursday refused to give Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro control of nearly $ 2 billion in gold sitting in a Bank of England vault because Britain does not recognize the socialist leader as president of the Latin American nation.

Maduro has demanded the gold to help his cashstarved nation fight the coronavirus pandemic. But the central bank for the United Kingdom, whose government recognizes Venezuelan opposition politician Juan Guaidó as his country's legitimate leader, had refused to hand it over to Maduro's administration.

The ruling clarifies the question of who is Venezuela's legitimate leader — at least in the eyes of one world power.

“This is very much showing the isolation of the Maduro government,” said Christopher Sabatini, a senior research fellow for Latin America at the Chatham House think tank in London.

Guaidó has sought to preserve the gold stash at the Bank of England to keep it out of the hands of the Maduro government, which it contends is illegitimate and corrupt. His lawyers reiterated during a recent four- day hearing their stance that the National Assembly leader became Venezuela's rightful president under provisions of the country's constitution.

Guaidó, who holds no practical power within Venezuela, called the ruling a “great victory” for his interim government's international recognition and the anti-Maduro coalition's fight to protect the country's wealth and assets held abroad, which includes an ongoing battle over its Citgo refineries in the United States.

“The first thing is that it's protected from the clutches of the dictatorship,” Guaidó said of the gold, adding that for now it will remain in the bank's vaults.

Also Thursday, Maduro's Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza announced that Venezuela had withdrawn an expulsion order against European Union Ambassador Brilhante Pedrosa.