CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro said yesterday that Citibank NA, planned to shut his government’s foreign currency accounts within a month, denouncing the move by one of its main foreign financial intermediaries as part of a “blockade.”
“With no warning, Citibank says that in 30 days it will close the Central Bank and the Bank of Venezuela’s accounts,” Maduro said in a speech, adding that the government used the US bank for transactions in the United States and globally.
“Do you think they’re going to stop us with a financial blockade? No, gentlemen. No one stops Venezuela.”
Citibank, a unit of Citigroup Inc, could not immediately be reached for comment about the purported measure against Venezuela’s monetary authority and the Bank of Venezuela which is the biggest state retail bank.
With the OPEC nation’s economy immersed in crisis, various foreign companies have been pulling out or reducing operations.
