Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro denounced that the creditors of the Republic have stopped collecting $17 billion as a product of the illegal sanctions that have frozen Venezuelan bank accounts overseas, thus preventing payments of debt through international banks.
“We are good payers. We’ve paid all our obligations, until the cruel and irrational sanction politics came (…) We were impeded from paying, because our bank accounts were frozen. In New York, in Europe. There came a point where they eliminated all our bank accounts. If I had here today, the payment for our creditors, for the creditors of the Republic — if I had right now a bag of dollars here, $17 billion that they’ve stopped collecting, as a product of the brutality of the sanctions, I wouldn’t be able to pay them, because there are no bank accounts in the world that accept deposits from the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela,” he denounced in an interview with U.S. news agency Bloomberg.
When asked if development could be achieved without access to international capital markets, the Venezuelan president said that “the capital market is governed by the International Monetary Fund, by the World Bank. And the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, is governed by the United States of North America,” which is promoting sanctions against Venezuela.
President Maduro praised Venezuela’s moral, financial strength as it has always been a good partner and paid its debts. “We always pay. Since 2013, as President, until 2018, we paid approximately $64 billion,” he explained.
Regarding this situation, he called on holders to generate a change in the structure and regularize their relations, and stressed the importance that holders can reach agreements with the U.S. Government and the G7 so that the Venezuelan state can access international bank accounts and markets.
“I’m willing to regularize it. I have the plan. Our Executive Vice President, Minister of Finance, has presented the plan to the holders. They know that we are willing. They know that our plan is viable. That our plan is viable. And furthermore, it’s very bold. It’s very smart. And that the financial engineering that we’re proposing to build, has viability. So, well, let’s take the steps that we need to take to regularize that relationship,” said the Venezuelan president.