Venezuela Seeks Support for The Petro National Cryptocurrency
The President of Venezuela, Nicholas Maduro, is without a doubt a huge supporter of the announced national cryptocurrency that the country plans on releasing. In fact, Maduro was the one who first announced plans to launch a national cryptocurrency, the petro.
Now, Maduro seems to be seeking support for this cryptocurrency at other members of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of America. This is actually an alliance formed by around 14 countries in South America, including Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Ecuador. The alliance has regular meetings and one of the latest was held in Venezuela.
Local media reported that Maduro took advantage of this meeting and as the alliance was approaching the end of the discussions, Maduro asked them to adopt the petro. It appears that Maduro hopes that the members of this alliance will support the petro.
Local media reports also indicate that Maduro called the petro "one of the projects of integration of the 21st century in a bold way, but also in a creative way."
An interesting thing about this request made to the members of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of America is that Maduro made the call after the parliament of the country claimed that the petro, which is backed by the country's rick oil reserves, is actually unconstitutional.
The petro was first revealed by Maduro in December, 2017
The idea of a national cryptocurrency released by Venezuela was first presented to the public by Maduro at the end of 2017 in a televised broadcast. The petro was announced by Maduro as a new mean to achieve economic development and evade the sanctions imposed by the US on the country. However, last week Venezuela's government announced that the petro was actually illegal.
The government is run by the opposition of Maduro. The official statement from the government said that the petro would be in violation of constitutional requirements. No other details were revealed following the release of this stance from the Venezuelan government.
