Press. voanews.com
Venezuela's
foreign debt renegotiation committee will meet with creditors at 2 p.m. (1800
GMT) on Monday at the government's "White Palace" in downtown
Caracas, the finance minister said on Saturday. "Once
again, we invite investors to register their participation in this
meeting," Simon Zerpa, who is also the finance boss of state oil company
PDVSA but is on a U.S. sanctions list for alleged corruption, said in a Tweet.
Foreign investor
sources had said Zerpa and committee head Tareck El Aissami, who is Venezuela's
vice president but also on a U.S. blacklist for alleged drug traffickers, would
probably sit out the meeting to allay any fears about meeting them. But Saturday's
exhortation by Zerpa, and the location of the meeting right opposite the
Miraflores presidential palace, appear to indicate the meeting will not be a
low-profile affair.
Socialist leader
Nicolas Maduro's move a week ago to summon bondholders for talks about
"restructuring" and "refinancing" some $60 billion in bonds
has spooked markets worried Venezuela is heading for a default amid U.S.
financial sanctions. President Donald
Trump's measures against the Maduro administration, which it accuses of being a
"dictatorship" that has impoverished Venezuela's 30 million people
through corruption and incompetence, effectively bar U.S. banks from rolling
over the country's debt into new bonds.
Venezuela did,
however, appear to be honoring its most recent debt payment: a $1.2 billion
payment due on a bond from state oil company PDVSA. Two investors told Reuters
they had finally received payment, albeit delayed. It is unclear
how widespread investor participation in Monday's meeting in Caracas will be.
U.S.-based creditors are not prohibited from attending the meeting, but are
barred from dealings with officials like Zerpa and El Aissami.