The acting president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, communicated this Thursday the appointment of the diplomat Oliver Blanco as the new head of the country’s Foreign Affairs portfolio, replacing Félix Plasencia, who will go on to hold the position of director of International Affairs.
To date, Blanco had been serving as first vice minister of Relations and Foreign Trade of Venezuela, with specific responsibility for Europe and North America.
"I have decided to appoint Oliver Blanco as foreign minister of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. I hope that this strengthened team continues advancing in the changes and in the geopolitical recovery of Venezuela in areas of cooperation and friendship with all countries," the president said during a televised speech.
For his part, Plasencia will immediately travel to the United Kingdom "until we recover the gold that belongs to the Venezuelan men and women," Rodríguez pointed out, who on Wednesday demanded the return of the Venezuelan gold reserves deposited at the Bank of England and frozen for more than six years.
Venezuela keeps gold bars valued at nearly 2.000 million euros in the British institution, to which it has no access after Great Britain refused to recognize Nicolás Maduro's reelection in 2018. "Enough of excuses" and "of the theft of our gold," Rodríguez stated yesterday, emphasizing that "that gold belongs to Venezuelans, not to the Bank of England".