US says poised to pump dollars into Venezuela after Maduro

[WASHINGTON] The United States is prepared to pump US dollars into Venezuela to fortify the economy if President Nicolas Maduro leaves, the top White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow said on Wednesday.

Mr Kudlow told reporters that Washington is already working with banks and the International Monetary Fund on a rebuilding plan to revitalise the country's crushed economy and said that, when the time comes, "we will be moving as fast as we can."

"We call it Day Two," he said at a briefing arranged by The Christian Science Monitor newspaper.

"It would be a rescue plan, it would be a restructuring plan, it would be a plan to put cash into the country."

Venezuela's oil economy has crumbled under a collapse of crude exports and international sanctions against Mr Maduro, who Washington and its allies view as illegitimate.

The United States has been pressuring for Mr Maduro to step down or be overthrown, but he has clung to power with the support of Venezuela's military.

"The timeline is to get rid of Maduro. I have no idea when that is going to be," said Mr Kudlow.

Once Mr Maduro leaves economic assistance would be immediate, beginning with pushing the US currency in to reignite economic activity, moving it via "banks, iPhones, apps," said Mr Kudlow, who is director of the National Economic Council.

"The cash will not be bolivares, it will be dollars, at least at the beginning," he said.

"There is no demand for bolivares. Dollars are the answer."

AFP