Some Venezuelans, alarmed by Maduro's measures, speed up plans to flee

Maduro on Friday stunned the South American nation by announcing a 96 percent devaluation and vowing to peg the bolivar currency to Venezuela's new 'petro', a cryptocurrency that experts have cast doubt on as a functional financial instrument. "I am looking for flights to leave on Wednesday, any way I can," Narvaez said in Venezuela's western oil hub of Punto Fijo, home to massive but deteriorated oil refineries. "I am sure this is going to get worse because the man's ideas lack all logic." Maduro, who argues that he is the victim of a Washington-led "economic war" designed to sabotage his administration through sanctions, said that using the petro will abolish the "tyranny" of the dollar and lead to an economic rebirth in Venezuela, an OPEC member state home to the world's biggest crude oil reserves.

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