Dollarization begins when commercial and financial transactions carried out in the US currency dominate the volume of operations carried out in the country. In other words, dollarization is carried out first in fact and then, if that is the political will, by law.
Last year, in the face of the presidential elections in May, the candidate Falcón brandished the offer of dollarization as the banner of his campaign. In this regard, President Nicolás Maduro said: “That proposal to dollarize and end the Venezuelan currency is an unconstitutional proposal… I am going to defend the bolivar; I am going to convert the bolivar, with the monetary reconversion and other measures, into a currency that acquires a preponderant role in the life of our Republic ”.
However, the line shown by the government's actions in monetary matters is confusing. First, a decree was issued authorizing the circulation of foreign currency in the national territory.
Then a system of "change tables" was established, where banks organize dollar exchange fairs and establish a floating marker.
More and more businesses are "accepting" dollars as a form of payment. Companies offer dollar bonuses to their employees to "supplement" low wages. If someone is going to do a job on their own, the fees are in dollars. More recently, Seniat published a ruling that allows invoicing in dollars.
The latter, perhaps, allowed the mayor of Chacao to announce an ordinance that allows municipal police officers to impose and collect fines “denominated in dollars” and charged at the moment “at the official exchange rate”.
Incidentally, this measure, which includes that a percentage of the fine will be assigned to the official, as was also established in El Hatillo, is a measure that "legalizes the rattle", since the police will seek to impose many fines to earn more "commissions " So it turns out that now even fines (or rattles) are denominated in dollars.
It is not clear what the Venezuelan state's strategy is to defend the currency. A de facto dollarization is surreptitiously imposed. And when the bolivar dies, sovereignty also dies. At the cost of trying to "stabilize the exchange rate" we cannot be allowed to smuggle so infamously.
Angel Daniel Gonzalez
@ ÁngelDanielCCS
