Crisis-hit Venezuela, seen by many investors on the threshold of default, will try to restructure its debt after its oil company makes a scheduled US$1.2 billion payment, according to President Nicolas Maduro.
“After this payment, I decree a refinancing and a restructuring of all external debt and all of Venezuela’s payments,” Maduro said in a statement broadcast on state television on Thursday.
According to AFP News, he said the efforts to modify reimbursement of his country’s debt pile — estimated at US$150 billion — would start after today, when the oil company PDVSA pays the US$1.2 billion in maturing bonds.
Maduro, who has blamed the dire economic situation on political enemies and the United States, said on Thursday: “They will not asphyxiate us and we will never give in, not to the US empire and not to any empire in the world.”
The president said that, since 2014, his Government has paid US$71.7 billion in capital and interest.
“Venezuela has always met its international obligations, in times of high oil prices and low oil prices… Our intention is to keep on meeting them, but the financial persecution of Venezuela by international banks and organizations needs to stop,” he said.
PDVSA’s payment today is its second big settlement in a week, following a US$842 million payment last Friday by the company to partly cover maturing 2020 bonds and interest.
