The President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, has assured that the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) are building an architecture of financial and political cooperation, as he explained during a farewell ceremony for the ambassadors of Nicaragua and southern Africa in Caracas, held this Wednesday at the Miraflores Palace.
“The BRICS, the five emerging economies, have started to build an architecture of financial, economic, commercial and political cooperation and aspire to be one of the main protagonists of the emerging world,” said the President.
In this sense, he pointed out that the business and trade association is carrying out “initiatives to shape a new financial and monetary system”, a new financial system that will open the doors to all countries in the world and that “do not use international banking as a political tool to attack or attack countries”.
Alternative to SWIFT
Maduro also proposed creating a new international payment system, different from SWIFT and not used for “blackmail”, recalling that his country was barred from this system and the exchange into dollars was forbidden for ideological and political reasons.
The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, better known as SWIFT, is a cooperative of financial companies, mainly banks, for which it provides services. The platform connects around 11,000 companies from more than 200 countries and serves as the basis of the international financial system.
“An international currency of exchange should not be used for geopolitical or political blackmail, it must be a stable currency, capable of withstanding all the circumstances of world conflict, whatever they may be, and respected and in which all countries of the world have equal access , there must be a new monetary system,” said the Venezuelan head of state.
#InVideo📹| president @NicolasMaduro He pointed out that the blockade and sanctions have banned Venezuela from using foreign currencies.
Accordingly, he stressed: “An international exchange currency should not be used for criminal and perverse blackmail.”#ProductiveHands pic.twitter.com/eG00VdEMJf
— VTV CHANNEL 8 (@VTVcanal8) March 30, 2022
US sanctions
The President recalled that in 2017 the US government sanctioned Caracas by blocking the sale of crude oil to companies and individuals using the Venezuelan financial system.
“Venezuela was banned from selling oil, well, how many cruel, unjust, criminal attacks have we suffered,” he said. And in connection with the conflict in Ukraine, he added that “the economy should not be used to threaten countries”.
Moscow and Caracas are moving forward in negotiations to connect Venezuela to the Mir payment system set up by the Central Bank of Russia in 2017. To do this, however, approval must first be obtained from the central bank of the South American country.