Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced that this week the regime volition pay half a Petro to Venezuelan retirees and public workers as Christmas bonus.

With a full of 4,500,000 retirees and 3,500,000 public workers, Maduro said in a speech on Dec. xv that he expects to deliver half a Petro to more than 8 million Venezuelans this week. This follows up on remarks Maduro made in mid-Nov.

With a stock-still value of $60 established past the Venezuelan regime, the average Petro bonus that each Venezuelan will receive will be equivalent to $xxx. Information technology is estimated that the government volition give out some $240 million, according to the valuation given to the country cryptocurrency.

Maduro decreed that this week volition begin a "new stage of economic and social protection" within the Venezuelan economy, referring to the delivery of half a Petro to Venezuelans.

The president expressed in a straight mode that "they have been building the Petro (...) for almost 2 years" and added that "the first thing he did with the Petro was to identify 5 billion barrels of oil as back up", final that they are already producing those barrels of oil to have them "just for Petro". Withal, he too mentioned subsequently that they already have "30 million barrels of oil" that are office of "the direct physical material wealth that sustains the Petro for whoever wants to claim it".

Maduro as well specified that he has already signed agreements with "50,000 merchants in the state" to have Petro as a course of payment within their establishments.

Given the Venezuelan government'due south history of not delivering on promises related to the Petro, Cointelegraph advises readers to approach news on the subject with skepticism.