The Vice President for Planning, Ricardo Menéndez, spoke in support of the decision to refinance Venezuela’s foreign debt, announced by the Head of State, Nicolás Maduro, on Thursday.
«We are seeing a historic decision made by the President of the Republic that speaks of the courage of our people, the gallantry, the revolutionary vision that our country has and the leadership of our president», he said.
During a special program broadcast by Venezolana de Televisión, he assured that, despite the unconventional war, Venezuela is an example in the fulfillment of its international commitments.
«We start from the premise of the guarantee of compliance from the point of view of the payments that we have and which we must value (…) that we have paid 71 billion dollars, in the case of Venezuela it is 7 times the international reserves (…) and at the same time that we have done that, we have maintained all social programs, we have conquered the landmark of 1,700,000 housings built, we have reached 3 million pensions allocated amidst the economic war».
«(…) At the same time while that happens, a whole offensive of protection to the people is generated, that is, this is not just any Government; it guarantees the fulfillment of the commitments that are being held at the international level but it guarantees national compliance and continues to advance according to the premises that are held», he stressed.
He denounced that the fascist right wing led by Julio Borges continues in their international campaign to intensify the war and economic blockade against the Venezuelan economy and the welfare of his people.
«Knowing themselves defeated in the streets, knowing that they are defeated in the electoral processes, simply knowing that they have no scheme, they decide to accelerate the economic war».
He pointed out on the frequency of the increase in the country risk factor at the moment when the Republic is paying its external debt: «Always before we pay the commitments linked to external debt, the country risk factor increases, but more curiously, we pay the external debt and the country risk factor is raised up again (…) while we are working for there to be a healthy economy (…) there are people who are looking precisely for the economy to be disturbed».
He highlighted the measure of wage increase taken by the National Chief Executive, Nicolás Maduro in favor of the economic protection of the people, in order to counteract the induced inflation, representing the adjustment number 19 under his mandate.
«We have not managed to resolve the issue of inflation, but we are planted in the battlefield protecting our people while we resolve the inflationary issue», he said.
Regarding the increase of the socialist alimentation ticket, he said that it is a general increase in wages. «The increase of the socialist alimentation ticket is in real terms a general increase in salaries, because the socialist alimentation ticket is for the entire absolute base from the labor point of view of our country (…) that is why what generates the increase of the socialist alimentation ticket is a great impact. The global increase we are having is a general increase of about 40% of the integral income, fundamental changes of the present with the past», he added.
Menéndez denounced that after the call expressed by the Head of State to a National Constituent Assembly, different economic indicators were triggered against the stability of this matter, such as the excessive increase of the black market dollar.
«With the parallel (black market) dollar, what they are looking for is to get they money out of the Venezuelan’s pockets each time we generate a salary increase, to extract the money from the speculation of a coin that is fictional and that takes place in Miami and Cúcuta. (…) from the call to the Constituent process to the present the variation of the parallel dollar has been of a 811% (…) they decided, when they saw that their armed insurrectional street attempt failed, that they simply did not had any other option», he declared.
Menéndez condemned the imperial onslaught of the economic war against Venezuela, which incurred in losses in 2016 and the current year.
«Those elements that we have been seeing throughout these 4 years have had in the present year, but also in 2016 the two most complicated years from the economic point of view of the Republic. In 2016 we had a decrease from the point of view of income of practically 87% of income as a result of international oil prices and later a condition where the years 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 are years of high payments from the point of view of international commitments», he said.
