ONE BILLION dollars (£800m) worth of Venezuelan gold in the vaults of the Bank of England has been successfully seized, in an act of piracy, by the Tory government.
Venezuela’s central bank, under instruction from the Maduro government, has sued the Bank of England for theft, claiming its right to have access to its own gold.
The High Court in London ruled against the Maduro government on Thursday, with judge Nigel Teare saying that the US stooge Guaidó had been ‘unequivocally recognised’ as president of Venezuela by the UK government.
Justice Teare said: ‘Whatever the basis for the recognition, Her Majesty’s Government has unequivocally recognised Mr Guaidó as president of Venezuela.
‘It necessarily follows that Her Majesty’s Government no longer recognises Mr Maduro as president of Venezuela … there is no room for recognition of Mr Guaidó as de jure president and of Mr Maduro as de facto president.’
The Law Courts have backed up the piracy and massive theft both by the Bank of England and the UK government.
Venezuela has been hit very hard by the world crisis of capitalism and the coronavirus pandemic and now needs access to its gold, so that it can liquidate the asset and put the wealth to good use.
Only Iran has come to Venezuela’s rescue and sent full oil tankers to assist its economy, braving a US blockade and threats that the US navy, supported by the UK, would sink its tankers.
After a prolonged imperialist blockade, Venezuela desperately needs access to its gold in the Bank of England, but the modern day descendants of the British pirates that plagued the Caribbean have got their hands on Venezuela’s gold and won’t let go. They say that they will only hand over the gold to the US puppet Guaidó.
The British government and the Bank of England, supported by the Law Courts, are now at the centre of the US plot to remove the Maduro government so that the imperialist powers can seize and rob Venezuela of its massive natural wealth.
The Tory government, along with Trump’s US government are trying to starve the masses out, and recognise the renegade Guaidó rather than President Maduro as ‘Venezuela’s legitimate leader’. Guaidó has no legitimacy at all. He has not been elected, has very little support in the country, and has failed in several coup attempts.
This is a declaration of war on both the Venezuelan people and also on British workers. The UK government dares to recognise a rogue rather than the democratically elected president of the country who was wholeheartedly supported by the vast majority of Venezuelans.
Extreme right-winger Guaidó had the gall to declare himself ‘acting president’ in January 2019 and, a month later, Tory foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt said the UK recognised Guaido as ‘the constitutional interim president of Venezuela until credible presidential elections can be held’.
On 30 April 2019, a group of no more than a dozen or so military personnel joined Guaidó in his call for an uprising against Nicolás Maduro as part of what he labelled ‘Operation Freedom’. That attempted coup had zero popular support and fell flat on its face in a number of hours.
This continuing onslaught is a matter of grave concern not just for the Venezuelan workers or the South American masses, but also for UK workers.
There is now a world crisis of capitalism. If the UK workers just stand by and watch the imperialists rob and loot Venezuela, then they will be treated in the same way as mass unemployment mounts and the Tories and the bankers launch massive austerity to prevent their bankruptcy.
Defending Venezuela against imperialist assault is at the same time defending British workers at home against the crisis-ridden bosses and bankers who are getting ready to attack them as well, as the only way out of their world crisis.
The UK working class must force the trade unions and the TUC to intervene in support of Venezuela.
The trade unions must tell the UK government to return Venezuela’s gold or else they will face a general strike to bring them down and bring in socialism. This is the only language that the UK government will understand!