Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 20 March 2018
Maduro's cryptocurrency 'genius' once pushed US sanctions

Florida, as a webpage and vide it a financial lifeline
app developer. have chosen their lot and
In 2014, Jimenez worked should expect to face the
five months as an intern in full consequences of turn-
Washington for Miami Re- ing against their people.”
publican Ileana Ros-Lehtin- Jimenez in an interview
en, one of Maduro’s fiercest defended his work for the
critics. A handwritten sur- government as serving a
vey he filled out upon be- greater, non-political pur-
ing hired, a copy of which pose: to empower Ven-
was provided by her office, ezuelans struggling to feed
listed in broken English that themselves amid four-digit
his goals for the internship inflation.
were gaining “knowledge He said his work on what
and experience about the would become the petro
defence of democracy.” began when he returned
Colleagues remember him to Venezuela in 2015 and
as a spirited anti-govern- banded together with
ment crusader who helped other tech entrepreneurs
organize a caravan, known to design a digital cur-
as the Trip For Freedom, in rency. The group then
which thousands of Ven- looked to partner with the
ezuelan exiles traveled by government in the hopes
Gabriel Jimenez addresses Venezuelan-Americans during an event to pressure the Obama ad- bus to Washington to pres- of bringing Venezuelans’
ministration to implement sanctions on the government of Nicolas Maduro, the president of Ven- sure the Obama admin- underground trading in
ezuela, on Capitol Hill in Washington. In 2018, Jimenez became a chief strategist of Venezuela’s istration to slap sanctions cryptocurrencies out from
government-backed cryptocurrency, and now his former boss, Miami Republican Ileana Ros-
Lehtinen, thinks he or anyone else behind the petro should be considered for sanctions too. on Maduro’s government. the shadows and into le-
(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) In photos of the event, he gal circulation. At the time,
can be seen standing on a bitcoin miners faced the
By JOSHUA GOODMAN of Venezuela, who have very same actions to punish podium with Ros-Lehtinen threat of arrest or extortion
Associated Press one of the most techno- Venezuela's leader for jail- at the Capitol addressing by government agents.
CARACAS, Venezuela logically advanced block- ing his opponents and de- supporters in front of an If the petro takes off, he
(AP) — A chief strategist of chain companies in the stroying the oil-rich econo- American flag and photos says, Venezuelans will be
Venezuela's government- world," a beaming Maduro my. of Venezuelan students al- able to freely exchange
backed cryptocurrency is said at the petro's unveil- A lawyer by training who legedly tortured by security their worthless bolivars for
a former U.S. congressional ing, referring to Jimenez's describes himself as an forces. a more stable currency,
intern who once organized company, The Social Us. "innovation enthusiast," Ji- Now his former boss thinks giving them a chance to
protests against the same It was a remarkable rein- menez spent several years he or anyone else behind raise capital and save. Cur-
socialist administration he's vention for Jimenez. working at a Dominican Re- the petro should be consid- rently the only way for the
now helping to circumvent Maduro has repeated- public-based bank where ered for sanctions too. majority of Venezuelans to
U.S. financial sanctions. ly hailed the petro, the his father was a top man- “Gabriel came to our of- get around strict currency
Gabriel Jimenez, 27, was world's first state-backed ager. The bank collapsed fice and said he wanted controls imposed in 2003 is
catapulted to something of digital currency, as a way in 2014 and his father was to learn how to support to buy hard currency in the
tech stardom in Venezuela to "overcome the financial among several Venezue- freedom and democra- illegal black market.
last month when he stood blockade" by the Trump lan executives charged by cy,” Ros-Lehtinen said in “This is about providing oxy-
alongside President Nicolas administration that pre- the Caribbean nation with a statement. “Instead, it gen to people, not a gov-
Maduro and two Russian vents his cash-strapped defrauding depositors of appears he is using the ernment,” Jimenez said in
businessmen on national TV government from issuing $30 million. freedoms that the United an interview at the bustling
signing a contract to posi- new debt. On Monday, After college Jimenez also States provided him in or- Caracas office of The Social
tion the petro, as the fledg- the Trump administration started traveling to the der to help advance the Us, where a dozen young
ling currency is known, banned Americans from U.S. for English and sum- Maduro regime’s attempts programmers scrawled
among international inves- dealing in Venezuelan cyr- mer graduate classes at to consolidate power and code in pink markers on
tors. ptocurrencies benefiting Harvard and George Ma- destroy Venezuela’s dem- glass windows overlooking
"It's a company founded the government. son Universities. In 2013, he ocratic institutions. Those a verdant valley and busily
and led by young Venezue- But Jimenez until recently started The Social Us, reg- who work to support the designed promotional ma-
lan geniuses, boys and girls had been agitating for the istering the company in Maduro regime and pro- terials for the petro.q

Hundreds of Brazilians protest murder of councilwoman

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — returning from an event Present Today and Always." ing the 2016 Summer Olym- heavy-handed tactics.
At least 1,000 people focused on empowering Several hundred people pics. The intervention has Rio's police force is one
marched in Brazil's second young black women. took part in a smaller pro- put thousands of troops on of the most deadly in the
largest city Sunday to pro- Protesters gathered in Rio's test rally in Sao Paulo. the streets, but doesn't ap- world. In 2016, 925 people
test the murder of council- Mare slum, where Franco Franco's murder came just pear to be having an im- were killed during opera-
woman and human rights grew up, before march- a month after the govern- pact. Critics say that's be- tions, according to the
activist Marielle Franco. ing along Avenida Brasil, ment put the military in cause generals don't have think tank Brazilian Public
Franco and her driver, An- the main north-south artery charge of security in Rio, the appetite to take on Security Forum. Tallies by
derson Pedro Gomes, were through the city. Several which is experiencing a major components of the human rights groups put
shot dead by assailants carried banners reading sharp spike in violence less violence, such as endem- the number over 1,000 in
Wednesday night while "Marielle and Anderson than two years after host- ic police corruption and 2017.q