The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank say it is ready to help Venezuela but can do nothing until its membership decides who is officially in charge of the crisis-torn nation.
“We can only be guided by the membership,” IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde told a news conference. “So it’s not a question of us deciding, it has to be a large majority of the membership actually recognizing diplomatically the authorities that they regard as legitimate.”
The heads of the IMF and World Bank both said they are preparing to move quickly.
Venezuela’s economic meltdown has been accelerated by a worldwide drop in the price of oil, its chief export.
Nicolas Maduro still commands considerable support among the population and is refusing to relinquish power.
His chief rival is the leader of the National Assembly Juan Guaido, who has already been recognized by around 50 nations including the United States, most of Europe and Latin America.
In January, Guaido declared himself Venezuela’s ‘interim president’ and vowed to overthrow Maduro.
International Monetary Fund and World Bank shareholders are still undecided on whether to recognise Venezuelan opposition chief Juan Guaido as the country’s leader, the institutions said on Thursday.
“Venezuela leadership issue still blocking IMF, World… https://t.co/kU3CNcWtmC
— kristoferkawas (@kristoferkawas) April 12, 2019
Based on the countries which have publicly supported Guaido or Maduro as the legitimate leader of Venezuela, and their voting weighting inside the World Bank and the IMF, Guaido’s representative could get more than half the votes according to a Reuters poll.
