Maduro Tries to Promote Petro Again by Airdropping It to Doctors

The President of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro plans on giving one free Petro to each doctor to do justice to medical workers that are risking their lives to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

The announcement was made on April 1 on Twitter. It says that the President wants to say thank you to all those fearful people that fight the disease that has already killed thousands of people. Considering the fact that an average salary in Venezuela amounts to $3.61, while Petro is trading between $20 and $25, the gratitude is quite considerable.

Statistics show that Venezuela currently has 146 coronavirus cases with 5 deaths, thus, the situation seems not that critical as compared to other countries like the USA, Spain and Italy. Nevertheless, doctors are in the first line of this war as they can’t avoid contacting the diseased people.

Another Attempt to Popularize Petro?

However, there are people sceptical about this airdrop. The point is that Maduro has been trying to promote Petro since its launch in 2018, with little luck though. He made Banco de Venezuela accept it, tried to force people to buy oil and gas using this cryptocurrency, and even promised to pay pensions in Petro. 

Coinidol.com, a world blockchain news outlet, has previously reported that Venezuelan President had closed all banks in the country forcing people to switch to online transactions including transactions with Petro. As a result, the increase of online operations has caused an overload of the national telecommunications network, putting the entire country at risk of an Internet blackout. 

Together with the fact that doctors have to work without sufficient protection means including masks, gloves, disinfection means and even ordinary soap, this really might seem like nothing more than an attempt to thrust Maduro’s cryptocurrency upon people.