VENEZUELAN business leaders are backing socialist President Nicolas Maduro’s decision to scrap currency notes trafficked by gangsters from Colombia.

The government closed the border with Venezuela’s eastern neighbour on Monday to prevent money-launderers smuggling back warehouses full of 100 bolivar notes that they had bought for 120 per cent of face value — causing a massive cash shortage in Venezuela.

On Tuesday, bosses’ club the National Council of Productive Economy gave its support to the decision to replace the notes with coins and new larger-denomination bills.

Meanwhile, the Venezuelan Supreme Justice Tribunal appointed two governors to the National Electoral Council, overruling appointments made by the opposition-controlled National Assembly earlier this year.

The decision heads off attempts by the opposition Mud alliance to take control of the independent body.

The court ruled that the appointments had been made while the assembly was sitting in breach of the constitution after swearing in three delegates disqualified for ballot-rigging.

The electoral council has come under sustained attack from the Mud and the US, which have demanded that it call a presidential recall referendum before a crucial mid-January cut-off date, despite the necessary conditions remaining unmet.

If the referendum is held after the cut-off date, Venezuela’s vice-president will take over, instead of resulting in new elections.

Elsewhere, Uruguay’s Foreign Ministry reiterated the country’s support for Venezuela’s continued membership of the five-nation Mercosur regional trade bloc.

Foreign ministers of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay voted to suspend Caracas on December 2, in what Mr Maduro called a politically motivated decision to aid the right-wing opposition.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez insisted that she would attend a meeting of her Mercosur counterparts in Argentina yesterday, despite Paraguay’s Eladio Loizaga saying Venezuela was “not invited.”

Ms Rodriguez said Venezuela had complied with all the Mercosur membership conditions that the troika accuses it of breaking.