During the first decade of the 21st century, any country who dared to go against the Petrodollar standard was summarily sanctioned, or in the cases of Iraq and Libya, invaded and decapitated by U.S. led or paid forces.
But with the advent of a new Sino-Ruso partnership in things economic, political, and military, the second decade has emerged with much different outcomes from U.S. policy. And with Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and soon to be Syria willing to follow in the footsteps of the BRICS nations in bypassing the dollar, more and more nations are gaining the courage to do so as well.
And the next on that list appears to be Venezuela.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Thursday that Venezuela will be looking to “free” itself from the U.S. dollar next week, Reuters reports. According to the outlet, Maduro will look to use the weakest of two official foreign exchange regimes (essentially the way Venezuela will manage its currency in relation to other currencies and the foreign exchange market), along with a basket of currencies.
According to Reuters, Maduro was referring to Venezuela’s current official exchange rate, known as DICOM, in which the dollar can be exchanged for 3,345 bolivars. At the strongest official rate, one dollar buys only 10 bolivars, which may be one of the reasons why Maduro wants to opt for some of the weaker exchange rates.
“Venezuela is going to implement a new system of international payments and will create a basket of currencies to free us from the dollar,” Maduro said in a multi-hour address to a new legislative “superbody.” He reportedly did not provide details of this new proposal.
Maduro hinted that the South American country would look to using the yuan instead, among other currencies.
“If they pursue us with the dollar, we’ll use the Russian ruble, the yuan, yen, the Indian rupee, the euro,” Maduro also said. - The Anti Media
Iran and Syria were able to survive U.S. sanctions by aligning themselves with Russia and China, and it appears that Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro may be on the verge of doing the same. And since they stand as an energy power as the holder of the largest global reserves for oil, a change of currency may be just the thing to bring Venezuela out of the depths of its hyperinflation, and move another chess piece off the board in which Washington can try to use their reserve currency power to intimidate.