Ramírez: Parallel Dollar is something “new”

Vice-President for the economy and Oil Minister, Rafael Ramírez, explained yesterday that the parallel dollar is a new phenomenon which first appeared in 2013: “The external factors that have disturbed our economy are generated with political intentionality. The parallel Dollar and the attack against our currency is a phenomenon that appeared in 2013.”

Ramírez also asked: “Who has the capacity to attack our coin, who can speculate against our currency? The great economic speculative agents that have deliberately intervened to create the [parallel] dollar,” he answered.

Jaua: Parallel Dollar is a Miami Conspiracy

Currency exchange houses and banks in the Colombian frontier city of Cúcuta freely transact with Venezuelan Bolívares and Colombian Pesos. Internet pages reporting the black market exchange rate Bolívares/Dollars only have to call these houses in Cúcuta to update the market value of the Bolivar Fuerte.

Not according to Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Elias Jaua: Yesterday he explained in a press conference that “the speculation phenomenon is produced by a ghost dollar that doesn’t really exist and that is ‘regulated’ by web pages that every day make up a different price. Shop owners then look at these pages and change the prices of their products according to the dollar that has been fixed by a conspiracy installed in Miami.”

According to Jaua this is all part of the “economic war” that was planned by the bourgeoisie during 14 years to remove the Revolution from power.

The government has so far blocked access from Venezuela to 50 web pages that reported the price of the “parallel Dollar” in Bolívares Fuertes.