MOSCOW, May 6. /TASS/. Venezuela's assets worth more than $5 billion remain blocked on foreign accounts, Venezuelan Minister of Foreign Affairs Jorge Arreaza said at a press conference in Moscow on Monday.
"More than 5 billion dollars are frozen on foreign accounts," he said.
On January 23, Juan Guaido, Venezuelan opposition leader and parliament speaker, whose appointment to that position had been cancelled by the country’s Supreme Court, declared himself interim president at a rally in the country’s capital of Caracas. Several countries, including the United States, Lima Group members (excluding Mexico), Australia, Albania, Georgia and Israel, as well as the Organization of American States, recognized him as the interim state leader. Incumbent Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, in turn, blasted the move as a coup d’etat. Russia, Belarus, Bolivia, Iran, Cuba, China, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Syria and Turkey voiced support for Maduro.
Foreign banks froze Venezuela’s accounts and money transfers. Minister of Communication and Information Jorge Rodriguez stated that Washington has stolen more than $30 billion from the country’s accounts in foreign banks recently.