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Thousands of Venezuelans rally in support of Maduro’s economic plans

Wednesday, 22 August 2018 9:05 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 22 August 2018 9:09 AM ]

Venezuelans attend a rally in support of President Nicolas Maduro in the capital, Caracas, August 13, 2018. (Photo by Reuters)

Thousands of people in Venezuela have taken to the streets in the capital, Caracas, to show their support for President Nicolas Maduro, who has launched a series of economic plans in an attempt to curb hyperinflation in the country.

Demonstrators carrying Venezuelan flags rallied in Caracas on Tuesday, a day after Maduro announced his so-called Economic Recovery Plan.

Dropping five zeros from its old banknotes, Venezuela introduced a new currency — the sovereign bolivar — under the plan. Maduro also announced an intention to raise the minimum wage by 3,000 percent.

The old currency will also remain in circulation during a transitional period.

Diosdado Cabello, the president of Venezuela’s government-allied National Constituent Assembly, who was attending the rally, praised the government plans.

“Today, the revolutionary people, together with Nicolas [Maduro], launch a counter-offensive in the economic spheres to succeed and defeat capitalism,” he told the crowd.

The supporters of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro rally in the capital, Caracas, August 21, 2018. (Photo by Reuters)

Venezuela, once among Latin America’s richest countries, is in a fourth year of recession. Economists at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have forecasted a potential inflation rate of one million percent for Venezuela this year.

‘An economic miracle’

About 2.3 million Venezuelans have left their home country since 2015 — more than 500,000 only this year — mostly for Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, in search of a better life.

About 90 percent of Venezuelans now live in poverty, while more than 60 percent of people interviewed in a survey conducted by three universities earlier this year admitted to waking up hungry over the past three months because they lacked the means to buy food.

The Maduro government has blamed the United States and its sanctions. The opposition have blamed government mismanagement.

Business leaders have criticized the new economic measures as counterproductive, but Maduro has said the country “is going to experience an economic miracle.”

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