Skip to main content
Donate to the 95 years appeal
The IMF must grant Venezuela’s bid for funds now
Venezuela’s appeal for an emergency loan worth $US5 billion to help it tackle the coronavirus crisis has been turned down. We cannot accept this, writes Unite's TONY BURKE
A woman wearing a mask walks wearing her cross at sunset during Holy Week in the Catia neighbourhood of Caracas, Venezuela, on Easter Sunday

THE Venezuelan government wrote to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) seeking funds from its rapid financing instrument (RFI) to “strengthen its detection and response systems” during the coronavirus pandemic.

The IMF claims that RFI loans “can be disbursed very quickly to assist member countries implement policies to address emergencies such as the coronavirus” and has allocated $50 billion (£40bn) to the fund.

This decision not to grant an RFI then, seems to illustrate that it is really the US Trump administration, with its unremittingly hostile policy of securing illegal regime change through sanctions against Venezuela, that is calling the shots at the IMF.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
NEW INDIGNITIES FROM THE NEW TRUMP REGIME: Family members ho
Features / 27 March 2025
27 March 2025
Two months into Donald Trump’s second run as president, what can we glean about his policies towards Latin America so far, asks TIM YOUNG, ahead of this Saturday’s Socialism or Barbarism day school in London
FIRM REBUFF TO SEDITION: National Assembly President Jorge R
Features / 6 December 2024
6 December 2024
The new ‘Bolivar’ Act expands the brutal sanctions programme as the Trump team signals a return to aggressive regime change and foreign mercenaries plot insurrection and assassination, writes TIM YOUNG
An image of Republican presidential nominee former President
Features / 12 November 2024
12 November 2024
TIM YOUNG warns that the president-elect’s record of economic and political interference from his last stint in the White House show dangerous potential for escalated aggression against the Bolivarian government from 2025
A Cuban flag shredded by the winds of Hurricane Rafael flies
Features / 9 November 2024
9 November 2024
FRANCISCO DOMINGUEZ gets the measure of what the new administration in Washington could have in store for Latin America, where Trump’s previous government had a notorious track record of hostility