The Venezuelan government did not wait long before responding to the ban of its cryptocurrency Petro imposed by the United States of America through an executive order signed by the US President Donald Trump.
The executive order prohibited the US citizens to trade Petro or any other cryptocurrency emitted or backed up by the Venezuelan government. This measure is part of the US sanctions against Venezuela.
After the executive order was published, the President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, issued an official statement in which he rejected the measures of the US president against Petro and the financial and economic system of Venezuela: “These unilateral sanctions, in violation of the Charter of the United Nations and the most elementary principles of International Law governing civilized relations between sovereign States, constitute a new imperial aggression aimed at intensifying the attack on our People, pretending by way of the commercial blockade, financial persecution and economic boycott, to cause chaos in our economy, thereby breaking the will of our People and their resolution of freedom, peace and hope.”
According to the statement, the US government could be committing a crime against humanity that may be presented at the International Criminal Court as a violation of Article 7 of the Statute of Rome. Afterwards, the president of Venezuela published a tweet saying the president Donald Trump was scared by the actions performed by the Venezuelan government, which means Venezuela is on a good path.
Other Venezuelan functionaries also commented the newly imposed ban. For example, Diosdado Cabello, the ex president of the National Assembly of Venezuela, published a tweet saying the imperialism is making a mistake again by introducing sanctions against the Venezuelan people.
On the other hand, the president of the Venezuelan national cryptocurrency association (Asonacrip), José Angel Álvarez, said: “There is no technological way to block the cryptocurrencies. Asonacrip supports the creation of Petro because this will allow thousands of Venezuelans to get to know the blockchain technology. At the same time, I think that the ones really sanctioned by this new measure imposed by Donald Trump are the United States citizens and the companies operating in that country. It is ironic because the US is the first one to promote the free market.”
For José Ignacio Hernández, a lawyer from Venezuela, the Trump’s decision to ban Petro only confirms the stance of the National Assembly of Venezuela elected in the 2015. The National Assembly rejected the presidential decree that introduced Petro because it violates the constitution of the country. Hernández wrote on his official Twitter account the following: “The new executive order against Petro points highlights the decisions took by the National Assembly to declare Petro as unconstitutional. This is another sign of the importance of the National Assembly in the current conjuncture.”
