Venezuelan Govt. to Sue Borges for Interfering With Economy

Venezuelan Vice President Tareck El Aissami announced on Thursday that the government would be launching a lawsuit against right-wing opposition leader and president of the National Assembly, Julio Borges, for his efforts to hinder foreign investment in the Venezuelan economy.

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Borges, who is one of the most prominent far-right opposition leaders in Venezuela, recently launched an attack against the investment bank Goldman Sachs for purchasing over US$2.8 billion in bonds from PDVSA, the national oil company of Venezuela. In a letter to Goldman Sachs, which was subsequently posted on his Twitter account, Borges claimed that in purchasing the bonds, Goldman Sachs was “extending a lifeline” to a “dictatorship,” and funding “human-rights abuses.”

“We can't allow [Borges] as a leader, whatever his political ideology, to declare that he is attacking an international financial operation because it will strengthen the Venezuelan economy,” El Aissami said.

El Aissami condemned Borges for attempting to cut off Venezuela from legal and transparent international investments. “Borges is threatening investors so that they don´t come to Venezuela,” he said.

The Government has called Borges' actions a continuation of efforts toward the “economic ambush” in the country, with the intention of “generating instability in the country with the purpose of overthrowing the Government of the President of the Republic, Nicolas Maduro.”

In the midst of an ongoing economic recession that was triggered by stagnant oil prices, Borges and other opposition leaders have repeatedly engaged in measures to cut off Venezuela internationally from investment channels which would provide a much needed economic boost.

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Just last month, the National Assembly President sent over a dozen letters to various international banks requesting that they cut off all transactions with the Venezuelan government and state enterprises. The letters threatened that doing business in Venezuela “would be engaging in crimes, and that such contracts would be legally and morally unacceptable.”

The opposition controlled National Assembly has also repeatedly blocked efforts to refinance Venezuela's debt, among other government efforts to remedy the economic situation.