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Cracking Down on Black Market Benjamins

The bolívar keeps falling, the brecha cambiaria remains wide, and the lack of foreign currency persists. Now, Maduro & Co. resort to repression against exchange rate trackers

What we know:

On Wednesday, May 28th, Venezuelan police arrested Carlos Pérez Abreu, the manager of the Instagram account monitordolar.vzla—a tracker of official and black market exchange rates with over 1.1 million followers. He’s accused of promoting the use of “parallel dollars,” a move seen as an attempt to censor the reporting of unofficial rates used by many to save in US currency.

Pérez Abreu faces charges of terrorism, illegal fundraising, and false advertising. Últimas Noticias, which often serves as a mouthpiece for the government, reported that 25 people across seven states have been arrested under similar accusations—echoing Diosdado Cabello’s claim that these platforms “manipulate rates to harm the people.”

On Sunday, June 1st, El Dorado P2P, a platform for trading stablecoins in Latin America, announced it was ceasing operations in Venezuela. Its Venezuelan founder, Guillermo Goncalvez, denied having promoted speculation. Other platforms and social media accounts have stopped publishing black market rates.

Economist Asdrúbal Oliveros warned that “growing penalties and controls” will lead to shortages and fuel more black-market activity.

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