The president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, removed Congressman Antonio Ecarri from the presidency of the Venezuela-United States Parliamentary Friendship Group.

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This decision was made due to Ecarri’s statements about a proposal to formally dollarize the Venezuelan economy, with the advice of economist Steve Hanke.

Through a statement released on his Telegram account, Rodríguez argued that the decision is based on the fact that “his actions have been irresponsible and have violated the legal system that we are obliged to defend.”

ATENCIÓN: pic.twitter.com/IzAy6M7FW7

— Jorge Rodríguez (@jorgerpsuv) August 22, 2026

In the official text, the Parliament’s board indicated that Ecarri’s removal is for having infringed article 113 of the AN’s Internal and Debate Regulations, which obliges deputies who perform inter-parliamentary diplomacy functions to act in accordance with the Constitution and the interests of the Republic.

He also pointed out that the deputy violated article 318 of the Constitution, which expressly establishes that the monetary unit of the Republic is the bolívar and that the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV) is the only entity with exclusive competence to exercise the country’s monetary policy.

Given these facts, the president of the AN confirmed the initiation of an internal investigation procedure by the board of directors to determine the scope of the faults committed by the deputy of the Lápiz party and to set the corresponding sanctions according to the internal regulations.

“I will not allow a friendship group to be used to clumsily and spuriously undermine the constitutional and legal bases of our Republic,” Rodríguez concluded in his statement.

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