Hi from Argentina. We change money every 10-15 years, so we are use to strange things.
This is very strange. When we change money we usually have a longer period while both kind of bills are valid.
For example, now we have two designs of the ARG$100(US$7) and ARG$50(US$3.5) for political reasons and two designs of the ARG$10(US$0.7) for security reasons. They are used together and the ATM can provide any of them at random. The two ARG$100(US$7) bills have coexisted since 2013 and there is no problem.
We also have ARG$2(US$0.15) bills and coins since 2011 without problem. Actually all the ARG$2(US$0.15) bills are very old and not very well conserved, so you must treat them carefully to not destroy them, but you still can use them.
So it's very fishy that they are forcing to put all the bill in the bank with a in a extremely short time. I suspect something shady like a Corralito, but I still can't discard plain stupidity. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corralito )
According to the government, this was done as a surprise measure to stop the mafias taking the bills to Colombia as part of the "Economic Warfare" (that convenient excuse for our failed economy) that is being waged against Venezuela.
Lots of people are talking about a Corralito here. The people exchanging their bank notes in the Central Bank in Caracas are only receiving a voucher saying that they deposited their money there!
Those that cannot make the trip to Caracas or don't have access to a bank or bank account are basically screwed.
There is a theory that since the dollar black market rate was increasing every day, the government did this as a way to collect all that money in the streets as a way to stop it.
The government insists on blaming all our problems on external factors, it's never their fault. But no one ever thinks if it would actually be possible for an "evil actor" to influence the economy of an entire country via twitter or mafias, like they constantly say.
This is very strange. When we change money we usually have a longer period while both kind of bills are valid.
For example, now we have two designs of the ARG$100(US$7) and ARG$50(US$3.5) for political reasons and two designs of the ARG$10(US$0.7) for security reasons. They are used together and the ATM can provide any of them at random. The two ARG$100(US$7) bills have coexisted since 2013 and there is no problem.
We also have ARG$2(US$0.15) bills and coins since 2011 without problem. Actually all the ARG$2(US$0.15) bills are very old and not very well conserved, so you must treat them carefully to not destroy them, but you still can use them.
So it's very fishy that they are forcing to put all the bill in the bank with a in a extremely short time. I suspect something shady like a Corralito, but I still can't discard plain stupidity. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corralito )