Venezuela shuts border with Columbia to fight currency smuggling

The president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, appears in this July 21, 2016, photo with the former prime minister of Spain, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, right, and former president of the Dominican Republic Leonel Fernandez in Caracas, Venezuela. (Fernando Llano/File, AP)

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THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

December 12, 2016 - 3:38 pm

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has ordered the closure of the border with Colombia for 72 hours in a crackdown on currency smuggling by what he says are “mafias” trying to destabilize the socialist-run economy.

Maduro announced the decision Monday following a meeting with top economic aides.

The move comes as he is trying to curb Venezuela’s galloping inflation and roll out a new range of bank notes after deciding to pull from circulation a 100-bolivar bill. It is currently the country’s largest-denominated bill but worth only about 3 U.S. cents at the widely used black market rate.

Maduro warned Sunday that people will not be allowed to bring back 100-bolivar bills from outside Venezuela to trade them in for the new bank notes.

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