Venezuela’s prized gold reserves held at the Bank of England would be channelled through accounts at the US Treasury Department under an agreement aimed at financing reconstruction after the June 24 earthquakes, according to National Assembly deputy Ramón López, El Nacional reported.

López, a member of the delegation representing the 2015 opposition-led National Assembly in the US-supervised talks with the government of interim President Delcy Rodríguez, said the assets would be released only after detailed planning and oversight mechanisms are established. Funds would be directed towards housing, health centres and schools in affected areas, with “a permanent audit plan for the expenditures” involving international firms.

The arrangement is intended to ensure “the gold is used properly and audited by international companies”, López said in an interview with Venevisión. He rejected suggestions that recovering the bullion was linked to reforms of Venezuela’s Supreme Court of Justice.

“Giving the gold for the Supreme Court is not an exchange, it’s not true (…) they are not linked,” López said, adding that safeguards had been designed “so that nothing is diverted from the purpose of the spending” during reconstruction.

The agreement was struck last week between representatives of the 2015 National Assembly — the last such body to enjoy wide international recognition — and Chavista leaders now headed by Rodríguez, who became interim president after Nicolas Maduro's capture by US forces in January. It calls for the recovery of Venezuelan assets held in England and establishes transparency, traceability and auditing mechanisms for their use. A separate working group is focused on “strengthening democracy”, including issues involving the judicial and electoral branches.

The US routing of gold reserves mirrors the arrangement already in place for Venezuela's key oil revenues, which have been managed by the US Treasury since Maduro's ouster and disbursed to Caracas at Washington's discretion.

The assets include a $120mn surplus from a gold swap between the Central Bank of Venezuela and Deutsche Bank that was terminated in 2019, as well as 31 metric tonnes of gold held at the Bank of England that could be worth about $4bn. Rodriguez asked the UK to release the gold in July, arguing it was sorely needed to speed up reconstruction, boost employment, revive economic activity and restore education services in the earthquake-hit areas.

The bullion has been tied up in a legal dispute since 2018, when the Bank of England declined a request to withdraw part of Venezuela’s reserves, citing anti-money-laundering requirements. The dispute intensified after the UK recognised Venezuela’s National Assembly president as the country’s president for legal purposes in early 2019 in the wake of the previous year's disputed election where Maduro claimed victory.

British courts subsequently ruled that an ad hoc central-bank board appointed by the acting president was authorised to represent the institution before the Bank of England. Later challenges by the Maduro government failed to overturn those decisions, which remain in effect.

Rodríguez said the dialogue agreement, which also crucially includes a pledge to overhaul the country's regime-controlled judiciary, would allow the sides to jointly recover the gold and use it to rebuild areas affected by the earthquakes. “Agreements were reached where we will work together to recover the gold that is in England, which belongs to all Venezuelans,” she said.