IMF rejects Venezuela’s request for $5 billion loan to fight coronavirus

WASHINGTON, (ST)-The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has rejected a Venezuelan request for $5 billion loan in order to fight the novel coronavirus pandemic in the Latin American country.

The IMF’s move indicates its subjugation to the US policies and instructions against the legitimate government of President Nicolas Maduro.

AFP quoted IMF spokesperson as saying that the request can’t be considered, because “there was no clarity among the IMF’s 189 member states on who is Venezuela’s rightful leader” and because the fund’s procedures must be based on an official recognition of the current Venezuelan government by the international community.

President Maduro’s loan request was the first to the IMF since 2001.

 The United States and its allies refuse to recognize the legitimacy of president Maduro. Instead they recognized the U.S.-backed opposition leader Juan Guaido as the interim president of Venezuela.

Washington has imposed coercive economic and financial measures against Venezuela that targeted the country’s central bank within the framework of the US constant attempts to interfere in Venezuela’s internal affairs and to destabilize the country.

The US administration has also backed the rightist forces in Venezuela in order to serve its hegemony schemes that aim at stealing the country’s oil.

Hamda Mustafa