Opposition Leader Lobbied Banks to Boycott Venezuelan Government, AP Reveals
The Associated Press has revealed that the current acting president of the National Assembly, Julio Borges, has sent more than a dozen letters to international banks urging them to boycott the national government.
The head of Venezuela’s National Assembly, Julio Borges, has sent more than a dozen letters to major banks asking them not to carry out transactions with the Venezuelan government in order to block the administration of President Nicolas Maduro from receiving financing, the Associated Press reported.
Borges sent letters warning international banks that they could tarnish their reputation if they supported Maduro with financing in his bid to revitalize Venezuela’s economy.
Among the letters, the head of the assembly sent a document to John Cryan, director of Deutsche Bank on Thursday, warning him of the consequences of carrying out financial transactions with Venezuela.
“The national government, through the Central Bank, will try to exchange gold from the national reserve for dollars in order to remain in power unconstitutionally,” Borges wrote.
Borges, one of the founders of the opposition Justice First party, told Cryan “that by supporting this gold exchange, you would be acting in favor of a government recognized as dictatorial by the international community.” International mainstream media regularly echoes the opposition claim that the democratically-elected Maduro government is a dictatorship.
The lawmaker said this strategy was part of a reform approved by the rogue National Assembly — controlled by the right-wing opposition but declared in contempt by the Supreme Court Justice — to cancel any debt by the government that is not explicitly approved by the legislative branch.
Amid a wave of opposition protests in recent weeks, Maduro has repeatedly accused Borges of attempting to promote a coup in the country and warned that justice will be served to those responsible for fomenting violence.
Meanwhile, opposition leaders have announced that they will continue to protest. Demonstrations held over the past three weeks have resulted in 26 deaths across the country, confirmed Venezuela’s Attorney General, Luisa Ortega Diaz, this past Tuesday.
Venezuelan authorities have called on the Organization of American States to condemn the violence led by the opposition.
Edited by Venezuelanalysis.