Venezuela slashes US dollar allowance for Florida travel to safeguard local greenback supply

CARACAS, Venezuela – President Nicolas Maduro's government is slashing by more than half the amount of U.S. dollars Venezuelans traveling to Florida can buy and take with them under decade-old currency controls.

Venezuelans will be allowed to buy a maximum of $700 annually for trips just to Florida. That compares with the $2,500 a year already allowed for trips to all other U.S. states.

The restrictions published Friday in the Official Gazette follow a partial devaluation of the bolivar that has made it costlier for Venezuelans to travel abroad and which the government hopes will help safeguard a dwindling local dollar supply.

Venezuelans have been flocking to south Florida and other easily-accessed international destinations to shuttle abroad as much hard currency as they can under the rigid foreign currency exchange system.