Page 11 - ATD24OCT2015
P. 11
WORLD NEWS A11
Saturday 24 October 2015
Venezuela sues black market currency tracker for terrorism
HANNAH DREIER for comment. Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro gives a news confer- creating the false impres-
Associated Press Venezuela tightly controls ence at Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela. sion the currency is bleed-
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) the legal exchange of its Venezuela’s Central Bank filed suit in the U.S. on Friday, Oct. 23, ing value faster than it ac-
— Venezuela’s Central currency, the bolivar, using 2015, against a website widely used here to track the plummet- tually is.
Bank filed suit in the U.S. on a byzantine three-tier sys- ing black market value of the country’s currency. On Friday, the site was
Friday against a website tem meant to subsidize key posting a value of 820 bo-
widely used here to track imports with advantageous (AP Photo/Fernando Llano) livars to the dollar, down
the plummeting black mar- exchange rates. But many from 790 bolivars to the
ket value of the country’s people use the parallel dollar earlier in the week.
currency. black market, where the That’s compared to the of-
In an unusual complaint value of the local currency ficial rates of 6.3, 13.5 and
filled with images, high- has been plummeting. 200 bolivars per dollar.
flown language and even DolarToday, which tracks Economists believe Ven-
links to journalists’ personal currency trades along the ezuela is suffering from the
websites, the bank alleged Colombian border, has be- world’s highest inflation.
that managers of the site come a ubiquitous tool to The bolivar has lost about
DolarToday are commit- check the value of the par- 90 percent of its value on
ting cyberterrorism and allel market. The site is often the black market during
sowing economic chaos. blocked in Venezuela, but the last year, according to
The suit seeks to shut down many people in the smart- DolarToday numbers. q
the operation and exact phone-crazed country use
monetary damages. the site’s app to check the
“How far will some go to black market rate through-
enrich themselves? Would out the day.
they go so far as to hurt In addition to sending out
their own countrymen?” alerts when the rate crash-
the suit asks in its opening es to new lows, the site pro-
clause. vides a steady stream of
The complaint against negative news out of the
shadowy figures it describes socialist-governed country,
as Venezuelan exiles liv- and posts jubilant banner
ing in the United States is headlines when members
adorned with screenshots, of the ruling party get into
historical photographs, trouble.
and stock images of cash. The government says the
Backers of DolarToday site is publishing fake rates,
named in the suit could not intentionally driving the val-
immediately be reached ue of the bolivar down by
Guyana accuses Venezuela of
claiming gold mine land as own
GEORGETOWN, Guyana The mine is one of Guy-
(AP) — Guyana’s president ana’s biggest investment
says Venezuela is inflaming projects.
a border dispute by claim- It employs 500 workers and
ing territory in his country is expected to produce 3
where one of South Amer- million ounces of gold in
ica’s largest gold mines is. about 17 years.
President David Granger Guyana Goldfields did not
said Thursday that Venezu- respond to a request for
ela sent a letter to Toronto- comment.
based Guyana Goldfields Venezuela has long
warning it could face legal claimed 40 percent of
consequences for oper- Guyana’s territory and ex-
ating on land claimed by tended its maritime claims
Venezuela. He accused this year after oil was dis-
Venezuela of trying to covered in disputed wa-
scare away foreign inves- ters. The U.N. is mediating
tors from Guyana. the dispute.q
