President Maduro: Venezuela Must Participate in Worldwide De-dollarization Trend

Orinoco Tribune, May 18, 2023 —

During the fourth broadcast of his television program Con Maduro+, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said that Venezuela will join the de-dollarization initiative that is advancing globally: “Venezuela must join the initiative of de-dollarization of the world.”

President Maduro noted that Venezuela has been a pioneer in the search for alternatives to the US dollar to circumvent the “sanctions” imposed by the United States and its allies, while he denounced the political use of the US currency due to its position as the dominant international reserve currency in the world financial system. The president highlighted how the US currency has been used to attack countries such as China, Russia, India, Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba.

“There comes a time when the world gets tired, and new economic powers are also emerging,” he said, and asked Vice President Delcy Rodriguez to study the initiative of Zimbabwe, which launched a gold-backed digital currency for transactions, a landmark in the Global South.

President Maduro referred to de-dollarization as inevitable in the process of the formation of the emerging multipolar world order. In this sense, he took as an example the proposal of the BRICS bank, which is studying the possibility of using a newly minted currency of its own, aiming at commercial transactions between member countries of the group.