Yesterday in Venezuela, following an investigation into "illegal exchange rates," 86 people were arrested, 112 arrest warrants were issued, 596 raids were conducted and 1133 bank accounts were frozen. Maduro calls it the outcome of one of the largest criminal investigations in history. But really, it is nothing more than a distraction from the real problem. No exchange offices Unlike many other countries, there are no official exchange offices for foreign currency in Venezuela. Exchanges can only be made at the government, but they are out of money. Exchanging foreign currency such as Dollars is therefore prohibited. However, the black market trade is gróót, and the price has skyrocketed. In 2014, it was 80 bolivars per dollar. Today more than 550,000 bolivars. The food trade The government, on the other hand, has kept the rate of the Dollar artificially low for decades. 1 dollar was 10 bolivars, but only obtainable by companies that were friends of the government. Since 85% of products are imported into Venezuela -and there was almost no production at home- the government managed to keep power over the food trade this way. In recent years, the government did move somewhat away from the one rate policy. Now they operate several. All still
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