Never again will any foreign state trust the Bank of England
🏴 An important article for understanding how power actually works in the international financial system and how easily one country can seize the wealth of another while giving the act the appearance of legality and institutional normality.
written by @lucasableite
The news here on X has been saying that the United States is stealing Venezuelan gold. The phrase nails the unease and misses the facts, and what’s actually underway is far worse than a shipment of ingots being forcibly removed from a vault.
The 31 tons of Venezuelan gold have been stuck in the Bank of England since 2018, valued today at about $4 billion. The freeze stemmed from a political decision. When London stopped recognizing the government in Caracas, the vault no longer knew whom to hand it over to, and the UK Supreme Court sealed the blockade with the doctrine of the “one voice,” under which the recognition of foreign heads of state falls to the UK executive branch and binds the courts. In plain terms: it’s the British prime minister’s cabinet that decides who owns the Venezuelan gold, and the judges follow suit.
What changed in 2026 explains the rest. On January 3, U.S. troops captured Nicolás Maduro and installed his own vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, as interim president. Since then, the new government has opened up oil and mining to foreign capital, accepted OFAC licenses, and seen $100 million in gold flow to the United States via the state-owned Minerven and the trading firm Trafigura. Now, the revenues from those 31 tons in London, if they’re ever released, would be deposited into U.S. Treasury custody accounts, under international corporate audits, with the justification of rebuilding the country after the June earthquakes that killed more than six thousand people.
Take a close look at the mechanism. Domination no longer needs shipments of ingots. It’s enough to control the vault that holds them, the license that releases them, and the account through which the money flows. Sovereignty over a Southern people’s wealth comes to be exercised by a custodian who is also an invading power, a creditor, and a partner in the mining operations that have replaced sanctions with a regime of authorized extraction. It’s the same logic that froze Afghan reserves at the New York Fed and Russian assets in Europe, now applied in full to a Latin American country.
And here’s the part that should keep Brasília up at night. The Venezuelan case serves as a manual for what can happen to any country that keeps reserves in the central vaults of the North. The promise that London and New York are safe, apolitical places to store a nation’s gold has turned to dead letter, and it’s from this distrust that projects for de-dollarization draw growing, and justified, fuel.
I wrote the whole story, with the historical background and sources, in today’s newsletter:
https://t.co/lItLfznTZd…
🚨🔵🔴 DEAL DONE BY RODRI!
According to various media outlets, Barcelona and Manchester City have already finalized the agreement for Rodri's signing. 💥🇪🇸
The transfer would be around 55 million euros and the midfielder would have a contract agreed until 2030. ✍️
Only documentation details are left, and if everything proceeds as planned, Rodri would join Barça on August 12 next. 🔥
🚨🔵🔴 Rodri has spoken to Deco and Hansi Flick and gave his green light to Barcelona in order to proceed in talks.
Official contract proposal already in Rodri’s agent hands and Barça also made contact with Manchester City.
Operation Rodri: full speed for FCB. 💥