Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro bids to revive country’s ‘petro’ cryptocurrency – wo…

President Nicolas Maduro on Tuesday decreed that airlines flying from Caracas must pay for fuel in Venezuela’s ailing “petro” cryptocurrency, which he ordered to be more widely used in the cash-strapped South American country.

Maduro used his annual speech to the ruling Constituent Assembly to try to revive the controversial petro that has been banned by the United States and labeled a “scam” by some risk rating bodies.

“I decree the sale of all fuel sold by the PDVSA for planes operating international routes be made in petros from now on,” the socialist leader told the all-powerful Assembly, created by Maduro himself to sideline the opposition-controlled National Assembly.

Maduro also decreed the mandatory use of the petro to pay for state document services including passports.

Backed by Venezuela’s vast oil reserves, the petro was introduced in 2018 as a way to circumvent wide-ranging US sanctions and overcome chronic liquidity shortages.

Maduro wants…