Live
Audio Only
Money mafias operating in Venezuela will be "neutralized" when the nation implements monetary conversion as part of the government's Economic Recovery Plan, Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza has announced.
A series of new commercial strategies launched by Caracas has been designed to clamp down on illegal currency exchanges operating along the border with Colombia.
Such money mafias are widely blamed for a slump in the value of the Venezuelan Bolivar, further exacerbating the nation's economic woes.
"It is remarkable, the desperation of the money smuggling mafias, those dedicated to destroying the national currency, those that live to stifle our economy," Arreaza posted on his Twitter account on Thursday.
"Inside and outside the country there are many perverse interests that will be neutralized by the Economic Recovery Plan."
On August 20, a new currency will begin circulating in Venezuela as the nation moves from the Bolivar to the Bolivar Soberano (Sovereign Bolivar), anchored to the Petro cryptocurrency.
The measure, acccording to President Nicolas Maduro, will serve "to stabilize and change the monetary and financial life of the country in a radical manner."
Also on Thursday, Interior Minister Nestor Reverol met with public and private banking associations at the headquarters of the Superintendency of Banking Sector Institutions (Sudeban) to refine and adapt the transfer of the new currency.
Reverol told media that most of the necessary technological platforms had already been put in place: "Already 95 percent of the entire technological system is suitable for the implementation of the new currency."
Newsletter
