CARACAS, July 9 — Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodriguez, said on Wednesday she had asked the King Charles III to release about 30 tons of Venezuelan gold frozen under UK sanctions so it could be used for earthquake reconstruction.

“I decided to send a letter to the King of England to have the gold held at the Bank of England released. This gold belongs to our people. We need this gold to deal with the consequences of the earthquake,” she said on state television.

Last month’s twin quakes in Venezuela have killed at least 3,800 people, flattened scores of residential buildings and left thousands more homeless or missing in one of Latin America’s worth earthquake disasters. — AFP