Venezuela Declares Economic, Financial Emergency for at least 60 days

Expreso.ec reported the president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, the economic emergency decreed yesterday in Venezuela, giving it full powers to legislate in this area for 60 days. The move comes amid the worst crisis of the past 35 years. With a barrel of oil declining, with a paralyzed private productive apparatus because of the lack of foreign currency and hyperinflation, the government seeks to turn the situation to expand its powers.

The newly appointed Economy Minister Luis Salas, in a televised speech read the content of the decree, a series of measures, the general majority, preceded by a long preamble that identifies the death of the leader of the self-styled Bolivarian revolution, Hugo Chavez, the origin of the catastrophe in Venezuela, called “economic warfare” by the Chavez narrative.

Among these decisions they are: a) the Government may reshuffle the budget to his knowledge; b) establish measures to prevent tax evasion; c) expedite the processing for import products and supplies needed for consumption; d) exchange exempt from requirements-in Venezuela there is a sale of control very rigid currency since 2003 the public and private sector; e) require the increased production and could dispose of assets that private businesses have. What caught our attention is the possibility that revenues and maximum expenses for cash transactions in local currencies be established. The mere possibility that the Government is authorized to impose a playpen (a restriction on economic and financial transactions taxes in Argentina and Greece in the past) was perhaps the most shocking of all. Read Article