More than 200 arrested in Venezuelan crackdown on ‘speculators’

CARACAS: Venezuelan authorities have arrested more than 200 people since April as part of a crackdown on alleged currency speculators as the country battles world-record hyperinflation, vice-president Tareck El Aissami said Friday.

“We have arrested 216 people directly involved in these criminal acts, who are awaiting trial,” Aissami told reporters in Caracas.

He said the government of President Nicolas Maduro was targeting organized crime gangs involved in money smuggling and speculating against the dollar in an operation called ‘Paper Hands.’

He said the ‘epicentre’ of the smuggling operation was the Colombian city of Cucuta, where he said criminal gangs were “under the protection of the government of Colombia, directly by President Juan Manual Santos” — a virulent critic of Maduro.

“We have seized 12 billion bolivars in cash — some US$150,000 according to the official rate, and US$5,000 on the black market — that were ready for smuggling. This physical money was transferred to Colombia and was going for three times its nominal value,” he said.

Venezuela is going through a severe economic crisis, with its annual inflation rate close to 14,000 per cent, contributing to a rapidly depreciating bolivar.

Maduro has said the country is the victim of an “economic war.” — AFP