The president of the Central Bank of Venezuela, Calixto Ortega, will see his testimony restricted in a new trial in July between representatives of Nicolas Maduro and Juan Guaidó for the control of 32 tons of gold deposited in London, a British judge ruled on Friday.
The two political rivals have been facing each other since 2019 over access to bullion, valued at more than a billion dollars and guarded for years by the Bank of England in their vaults.
The long judicial saga gave the opposition leader an initial victory in July 2020, which was, however, annulled by an appeal court in October of that same year.
Accumulating the resources on both sides, the case reached the British Supreme Court in July 2021, which last December agreed with Guaidó again, but only partially.
The highest British jurisdiction established that, like the government of Boris Johnson, justice recognizes the opponent and not Maduro as president of Venezuela.
Both had appointed rival boards of directors of the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV), which gave conflicting orders to the Bank of England about what to do with the gold.
However, the appointment of his board by Guaidó was invalidated by the Venezuelan Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ), so the British justice ordered in December to analyze whether to accept this measure, taken by an institution that opponents describe as a “puppet of the regime.” ».
A new trial will take place in a commercial court of the High Court of London from July 13 to 18, established the magistrate Sara Cockerill.
“The July trial will determine the question of the validity of Guaidó’s board appointments. If their appointments are not valid, the issue ends here, ”said Richard Lissack, an English lawyer for the Caracas government, at a preliminary hearing held on Friday.
Do not “infect” procedures
Ortega, president of the board of directors appointed by Maduro, will testify during the hearings, Lissack said.
His intention is to do it in person in London, although he is still waiting to receive a travel visa, a member of his legal team told AFP.
However, the judge restricted the issues on which he can be questioned and give testimony.
“I will limit the testimonial evidence to matters that are relevant” to the invalidation of the appointments by the TSJ, avoiding issues that “complicate the procedure.”
Thus, Ortega will be able to resume a 2019 statement on the daily operations of the BVC, in terms of currency issuance or monetary policy, but not his opinions on the experience, qualifications or intentions of the Guaidó board regarding the management of international reserves. from the country.
Maduro’s legal team wants to prevent a legitimization of the Guaidó board from giving them “carte blanche to do what they want,” argued another of his lawyers, Jonathan Miller.
“If they are granted authority in a general sense, the question arises as to what they have the right to do,” he emphasized, stating that he wants to prevent them from transferring the assets to their personal accounts as well as to a bank in the United States, a country that has given the opposition total control of Venezuela’s international reserves.
“It’s a false argument!” Guaidó’s lawyer, Andrew Fulton, responded.
He denounced that Ortega’s testimony would be “politicized and deeply problematic”, that Caracas intends to allege “potentially catastrophic consequences for the Venezuelan economy” if the Guaidó junta is recognized and that the opposition has no intention of diverting funds.
Urging to take into account the potential consequences of recognizing the opposition board, Lissack considered that “it would be unfair to proceed with this case as if there were no future.”
To prevent these considerations from “infecting” the main question on the invalidation by the Venezuelan TSJ, the judge nevertheless decided to leave the issue for the end of the July proceedings.
