United States Promotes US $ 10,000 Million Commercial Financing Fund for Venezuela

The United States, several Latin American and European countries, and Japan are promoting a $ 10 billion trade finance fund to be made available to a potential new government in the United States. Venezuela, said Saturday Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

The official told reporters that the initiative was born from the meeting with the finance ministers of 19 countries to discuss the situation in Venezuela, plunged into an economic debacle unprecedented in the recent history of the region.

The meeting, which took place on the sidelines of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) spring meetings in Washington, was Mnuchin's fifth summons to badyze the situation in Washington. Venezuela, the country with the largest proven oil reserves, has been in recession since 2013.

"Whenever I have one of these meetings, I can not believe how much the situation worsens for the Venezuelan people," Mnuchin said.

"It's a humanitarian crisis, it's an internal crisis and it creates a migration crisis for its neighbors", he said, referring to more than 3.4 million Venezuelans who have left their country in recent years, according to the UN.

This meeting is the first since the head of the Venezuelan Parliament, Juan Guaidó, issued a challenge to President Nicolás Maduro on January 23 for judging his reelection illegitimate. Since then, more than 50 countries have recognized Mr. Guaidó as interim president of Venezuela.

Mnuchin emphasized "the possibility" of receiving "Venezuelan friends" and said that the meeting, attended by Ricardo Hausmann, coordinator of Guaidó economic advisers, was "very productive".

One of the problems that arose, he said, was the need to restore the trade of the former oil power.

"We will work to try to set up a consortium of about $ 10 billion in commercial financing that would be available to the new government to boost trade," Said Mnuchin.

Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Spain, France, Guatemala, Guyana, Portugal Italy, Japan, Mexico, Panama, Portugal, Peru and the United Kingdom were represented at the meeting, according to the statement released for the Treasury.

Some of these countries, such as Mexico and Italy, have not recognized Guaidó.

Mnuchin said that the issue of recognition of a government in Venezuela and the way forward for doing so was present in this week's discussions with the IMF and the World Bank.

Officials from both institutions said they were ready to help Venezuela, but said they could only do so when members of both agencies decided which government they would recognize in Caracas.