The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced this Thursday the resumption of its relations with Venezuela under the Administration of the interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, after having suspended them in 2019 due to issues of “government recognition”, as reported by managing director Kristalina Georgieva.
The IMF maintains that the decision has been adopted in line with “the opinions of the members of the International Monetary Fund who represent the majority of the total voting power of the IMF,” according to the official statement released by the organization.
The World Bank has done the same, which recalled, in its own statement, that Venezuela has been a member of the institution since 1946 and received its first loan in 1961. In the 1970s, the oil boom allowed Caracas to pay off its debts with the Bank and even lend part of its profits to support other member countries. However, the collapse of oil prices in the 1980s and the deterioration of economic policies led the country to resume loans in 1989. The last one dates back to 2005.
The double decision occurs during the Spring Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank that began on April 13 and will conclude on Saturday.
Furthermore, the resumption comes at a time when Caracas has resumed its diplomatic relations with the United States, since the capture of Nicolás Maduro on January 3 and the approval that Rodríguez received when accepting Trump’s economic and oil conditions and which have materialized in several laws approved in Venezuela to allow foreign investment in oil and mining.
The Fund also recalled that Venezuela has been a member of the institution since 1946, but that relations with the country had been suspended in March 2019, when the organization decided to pause its contacts “due to government recognition issues.”
Venezuela went through a harsh political crisis that year, when Maduro assumed a new mandate that the opposition considered illegitimate, leading to the self-proclamation of Juan Guaidó as president, who was recognized by dozens of countries around the world.
“A very important step”
The president in charge of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, celebrated this Thursday the resumption of relations with the IMF and assured that it is a “very important step” for her country’s economy. In a broadcast on the state channel Venezolana de Televisión (VTV), the Chavista leader thanked the managing director of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, and said that the South American country is normalizing “all processes that imply Venezuela’s rights in the organization and responsibilities.”
“It is a very important step for the Venezuelan economy, but also what Venezuela means for our region. It has been a great achievement of Venezuelan diplomacy and I also want to thank all the countries, all the Governments that joined this push for Venezuela’s return to the International Monetary Fund,” he said.
In that sense, Rodríguez expressed his gratitude to the President of the United States, Donald Trump, to the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, and “all the teams that were also involved” in the return of Venezuela to the Washington-based financial organization.
In addition, the president, who took office after the capture of Nicolás Maduro last January in Caracas by the US, thanked Brazil, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, which also “were collaborating in this entire process.”
Later, in a less institutional tone, the president said: “It is very regrettable, I have to say it responsibly, it is very regrettable that Venezuelan extremism took on the task of visiting capitals in Europe and other countries to try to prevent this very important step for our economy.” It was in a broadcast of the state channel Venezolana de Televisión (VTV).
