After suspending the sale of dollars for two weeks because of a crippling general strike, President Hugo Chavez announced a new fixed currency exchange rate to help bolster the country's flagging foreign reserves. The new policy goes into effect Thursday and fixes the currency rate at 1,596 bolivars to the U.S. dollar, Chavez said during a televised address late Wednesday. Chavez said the freeze on foreign currency trading would end with the establishment of the new system. The bolivar closed at a record low of 1,853 on January 21, the last day of currency trading.