“To judge or to award the gold reserves of Venezuela is to prejudge the sovereignty of that state which is alien to its duty and function as a bank.”
The world is amazed why every time the US makes a loud shrill that its freedom is being violated, the rest seems to appear as too meek and silent.
This is mostly apparent from countries led by the Anglo-Saxon states like the UK, Australia, and Canada.
Perhaps, they see in them as having the same blood lines, culture and having the same historical origin of oppressing other countries commonly understood as imperialism or modern-day banditry.
Poor and underdeveloped countries have become the easy victims of this banditry, and often they cannot defend themselves.
In addition to the usual method of depriving poor countries of their wealth or resources through unequal trade agreements, devaluing their currency and imposing exorbitant interest rates on loans or robbing them of their savings, they justify that what they are doing is based on their so-called rules-based principle, which they themselves conceived.
Today, it seems the US has totally departed from the norms of conduct worthy of being guided by morality to set itself as an example to be emulated by mankind.
For instance, the Syrian government has accused the US of looting its oil and gas in its occupied territories in the northeastern province of al-Hasakah.
It was reported by Xianhua news agency that US forces sent 100 tankers laden with stolen Syrian and smuggled out to Iraq. Accordingly, on August 8, the US forces were stealing 80 percent of Syria’s oil production.
According to the report, the US and its mercenaries are stealing an average of 66,000 barrels of oil per day in Syria as the country’s average daily oil production is estimated to reach 80,000 barrels in the first half of 2022.
China’s Global Times said the cost of stolen Syrian oil losses run to about $105 billion dollars. Global Times says the US has exhibited “bandit behavior” in “stealing” oil from Syria.
During the Trump administration, and despite the boast that its administration has not involved the US in a direct conflict, US, thru the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, made their stronghold in Al Hasakah which controls about 70 percent of Syria’s national oil resources.
The area has practically been made a liberated territory, free to be looted of all its resources by the US army and by its quislings made up of the Kurdish separatist forces.
The frequency of this act of banditry has become bolder. And states like the US and its allies are getting bolder. The imposition by the US through the EU and its NATO allies are getting frequent to a point that it has often been resorted to as an option now made acceptable to others.
The EU even proudly announced its more than 500 economic sanctions against Russia; that unless this modern-day pillage is stopped, this could commence other countries to do the unthinkable of plunging the world into global conflagration.
The US even announced that more economic sanctions are forthcoming.
The cases of Venezuela and Russia are another two countries robbed of their resources.
For one, Russia was practically deprived of $600 billion earned on the export of LNG to Europe.
The embargo came without notice to Russia, and the EU Energy Initiative and the US are jointly delaying the release of the fund.
In another case of banditry, the US has confiscated Venezuela’s gold reserves deposited in the Bank of England in London.
The UK is trying hard to complicate issue of determining which of the two governments represent the legitimate authority to transact business with the Bank of England: whether it be the government of Nicolas Maduro or that of Juan Guaido.
First, it seems that the Bank of England has forgotten that, as a bank, and therefore a mere depositary of foreign assets, it has no right to own them by forfeiture.
The institution holds those assets in their capacity as a bank, not as owner of those assets.
It behooves me to recall that the Swiss banks wanted much to muddle the issue of ownership to deprive the depositors of what many believe as tons of gold of Marcos in the Swiss banks.
Despite the election of BBM as president, nothing has been heard about that fabulous wealth believed to be hidden in the Swiss banks.
To judge or to award the gold reserves of Venezuela is to prejudge the sovereignty of that state which is alien to its duty and function as a bank.
The determination as to who has the right to withdraw or to transact business using said bank account or bank deposit or gold reserve is, in the view of many, a political rather than a banking undertaking.
As one commented, to decide on matters outside the realm of banking would involve the sovereignty of the state as there are two claimants, both insisting as the head of state.
While Juan Guaido claims to be the president, he never ran for president nor was elected by the national assembly of Venezuela as president.
Rather, it was only the national assembly that chose him as interim president.
In the subsequent election for the assembly in 2021, Guaido did not run nor was he elected to the office, reason his popularity went down fast.
Guaido’s claim as head of Venezuela’s Central Bank is a blatant usurpation of position, he does not control the bank or knows any employee in the bank whom he appointed.
Worse, Guaido is not even recognized by the European Union which is essential to give credibility to his claim.
Maduro, on the other hand, is recognized by the 70 countries including China and Russia to give legal status to his claim to control Venezuela’s state assets as a head of state of his country.
Most devastating is the revelation that the Bank of England acted upon pressure by then Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, and National Security Adviser, John Bolton, to recognize Guaido and could technically hasten the desire of the US and its imperialist allies to remove Maduro without resorting to the bloody and costly process of a coup d’ etat.
Although the drastic method of confiscating deposited assets of foreign governments is rather harsh and crude, such method is often not welcomed by foreign governments who still look at their system as civil to adhere to the rule of law.
This method of resorting to embargo and confiscation has made the US unpopular and an insulated power before the international community.
This has disastrously led to the collapse of the US diplomacy.
Maybe the method of assigning deposits and assets of precious metals of foreign countries friendly to them is considered a civil approach rather than by stealing the foreign currency reserves of countries in foreign banks like what the US did to confiscate the $7 billion foreign currency reserves of Afghanistan.
The decision of the Biden administration was unprecedented. That decision amounted to banditry and totally destroyed the image of the US as a civilized country in the free world.
The US took advantage of the hapless predicament of the Afghan people to deprive them of their savings and invariably of their last penny they can use to buy food.
(rpkapunan@gmail.com)
