Venezuela’s Maduro Blasts ‘Kidnapping’ of Venezuelan Funds

The Venezuelan president accused Belgian financial services company Euroclear of withholding USD$450 million.

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Bogota, November 24, 2017 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro demanded an “end to the kidnapping of Venezuelan money abroad” Thursday, accusing Belgian financial services company Euroclear of withholding USD$450 million from his government. 

“We have the homeland’s money circulating, some 450 million dollars in cash buying medicines and food and Euroclear have frozen [the funds] on us for the past six weeks to punish Venezuela so that we give in,” he said on state television. 

According to Euroclear’s website, it provides “settlement and related securities services for cross-border transactions involving domestic and international bonds, equities, derivatives and investment funds”. The financial company has not responded to Maduro’s comments. 

The Venezuelan president also went on to inform the public that Venezuela had USD $1.2 billion from Venezuelan bonds earmarked for food and medicine. However, the president said the money was being “withheld by financial payment systems”. 

“Come financial kidnapping and persecution, come economic war, nothing or nobody will stop me in the struggle for Venezuela’s future, prosperity, and happiness,” he said. 

The US government of Donald Trump imposed economic sanctions on Caracas in August, prohibiting US financial agencies from renegotiating Venezuelan debt. The move has been described by some economists as an attempt to starve-out Venezuela’s struggling economy.