Venezuelan interim president Delcy Rodriguez demanded Wednesday, October 28, the return of her country's gold reserves held at the Bank of England, where they were frozen more than six years ago.

Venezuela has gold bars at the bank valued at $1.9 billion in 2023 that it cannot withdraw because Britain refused to recognize Nicolas Maduro's 2018 reelection.

"Enough with the excuses" and "the theft of our gold," Rodriguez said, asserting that "that gold belongs to Venezuelans, not the Bank of England." Relations soured in 2019, when then-opposition leader Juan Guaido asked the Bank of England to withhold Venezuela's gold from Maduro's government. London and Caracas began a diplomatic rapprochement in September, announcing that both countries would appoint ambassadors to their diplomatic missions, which had been headed by chargés d'affaires.

It also follows an agreement reached in August between the interim government and part of the opposition during talks on a democratic transition in Venezuela. The two sides agreed to work toward recovering the gold to help victims of the June 24 earthquakes.

"What we have seen in recent years is what we in Venezuela call a mockery, but it is a mockery aimed at unlawfully seizing these resources. That gold is part of the central bank's reserves," stressed Rodriguez, who governs under pressure from Washington.

The interim president also ordered the foreign ministry and the attorney general's office to take action through the appropriate channels to secure the gold's return to Venezuela. The demand comes nine months after Maduro was ousted in a US military operation.