Oh, President Maduro… You just can’t seem to take a hint. Why do you continue to push a currency that has yet to serve any serious purpose?
Maduro To Force Planes to Use the Petro
In his latest chant of “the Petro is da bomb,” Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is going out on a limb and claiming that all Venezuelan airlines flying from the nation’s capital of Caracas must purchase their fuel using Petro funds.
In a speech to the ruling Constituent Assembly, Maduro announced the following:
I decree the sale of all fuel sold by the PDVSA for planes operating international routes be made in Petros from now on.
The Petro appears to have only one fan, and that’s Maduro himself. The rest of the nation – and the world for that matter – appears to have turned its back on the cryptocurrency and acknowledged it for what it is – a scam. Does Maduro think that people are so dumb they can’t read between the lines?
The socialist leader has consistently pushed the national cryptocurrency as a means of asserting Venezuela’s finances following the hyperinflation that has struck the country’s national form of fiat, the bolivar, but his schemes just don’t seem to be holding much ground.
First off, the currency itself appears to be based on a string of lies. The Petro is often lauded as “oil-backed,” yet no mention of these oil reserves is ever listed in the currency’s original white paper.
In addition, the currency has yet to appear on any legitimate cryptocurrency exchange. Not on Coinbase, not on Binance, not on Kraken… The currency has proven so controversial that all trading centered around the Petro was banned in the U.S. by President Donald Trump.
Still, Maduro just doesn’t seem to be getting the message. He has since announced a new work program that would pay government workers in Petro funds. The plan died out before it was even fully initiated, and in 2019, it was announced that specific employees would garner Petro-based Christmas bonuses. The socialist leader has also announced a new plan that requires users to pay state document and passport fees with Petro units.
Keep People Down and They’ll Always Need You
Maybe this is all part of a greater goal. If people can’t get their hands on Petro funds, they can’t get a passport, and if they can’t get a passport, they can’t leave. Maduro must know that the Petro has failed to reach mainstream status even in his own country, and that may be what he’s been looking to instill all along. Doing so ensures his people remain dependent.
Venezuela’s financial circumstances have only gotten worse with time. As the bolivar has continued to suffer, so have the people that once used it. The nation’s economy is in shambles, with supermarkets and stores offering nothing but bare shelves.