Venezuelans bypass Maduro’s blockade using digital wallet provider AirTM
Despite efforts from the Nicolás Maduro regime to block its access, digital wallet provider AirTM continues to gain ground in Venezuela and is set to start processing payments worth millions of dollars from Interim President Juan Guaidó’s team to ill-paid healthcare workers, company founder and Chief Executive Officer Ruben Galindo said.
Speaking in an interview with el Nuevo Herald, Galindo said that all of the 60,000 doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers in Venezuela have already opened up accounts to start receiving payments through the online platform even though the regime has ordered local Internet providers to impede its access inside the country.
“The ‘health care heroes’ and all of our users have taken steps to evade the censorship,” Galindo said. “Many of them have downloaded access to VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) to evade the restrictions imposed by the dictatorship through the Venezuelan Internet providers.”
Previously, Guaidó had recommended that the medical personnel and AirTM users gain access to VPN services and use the Internet browser Tor to evade the restrictions.
Sources close to Guaidó — who is seen as the legitimate president of Venezuela by an international coalition of almost 60 countries led by the United States — said that the payments might start to go out as soon as next week.
Guaidó promised Venezuela’s health workers, some of whom are paid less than $5 a month, a $100 monthly bonus to help compensate for the harsh conditions they face as they battle the coronavirus pandemic.
The payments, which could initially add up to about $18 million, would come out of the funds seized abroad from the regime.
Venezuela is by far AirTM’s largest market, representing about half of the company’s operations, as thousands of its citizens living abroad use the company’s services to send remittances to their loved ones suffering under the collapsing economy, Galindo said.
The Mexico City-based digital wallet provider is also used by Venezuelan freelance workers inside the country to collect wages from their foreign employers, bypassing the restrictions to foreign exchange transactions imposed by the regime.
“So far this year, we have handled around $80 million from Venezuelan customers,” Galindo said.
The payments to Venezuelan healthcare workers could provide an additional $5 million per month, according to press reports.
Venezuelans favor AirTM and companies like it because they protect their income from the country’s hyperinflation and fast depreciating national currency, the Bolivar.
But the trend represents a problem for Maduro’s efforts to grab a fat slice from the inflow of remittances, by attempting to force Venezuelans into selling their hard-earned dollars to the regime at an unfavorable exchange rate.
Venezuela, which for decades enjoyed one of the highest standards of living in Latin America, is today the poorest country in the region, with poverty levels that surpass Haiti’s and that rival those present in the most impoverished African nations.
