The Venezuelan government and the country’s opposition are close to reaching an agreement to transfer the central bank’s gold reserves, worth about $4bn, from the Bank of England to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Under the terms of the deal being discussed, the interim government of Delcy Rodríguez would gain legal control over the gold but would not be allowed to immediately sell the holdings, according to four people familiar with the discussions.
Instead, the gold could potentially be used as collateral for borrowing by the government to fund spending, including for reconstruction from June’s devastating double earthquake, three of the people said.
The potential gold agreement is one of the first concrete results from a US-backed negotiation process between the interim government and the opposition.
If the deal is finalised, it would bring to an end a seven-year-long dispute over the gold that began in 2019, when the US, UK and some other governments recognised opposition politician Juan Guaidó, then head of the National Assembly, as the country’s legitimate president.
Since then, the opposition has claimed control over the bullion bars that the Venezuelan central bank had stored in the vaults at the Bank of England. The legal dispute at one stage reached the UK Supreme Court.
what is the take on this to have?
the rest of the world's western marxists insist that this is a tactical retreat, but examples like this keep painting a picture of an out right defeat.