Venezuela announces deal with individual creditors

CARACAS, Venezuela

The Venezuelan government announced on Friday an agreement with individual creditors to restructure terms of its sovereign debt.

Because the government has been in default for three years, the deal is intended to ease terms of the debt so it could fulfill its financial obligations.

The Ministry of Economy, Finance and Foreign Trade said the deal is proof of “the permanent will of the issuers to comply with their obligations, regardless of the effects that external factors may have caused on the payment capacity of the issuers.”

It said the agreement was based on a proposal by the government in September that consisted of interrupting accruing interests in exchange for negotiating a restructure of the defaulted debt.

Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said at the time that the country is committed to fulfilling its obligations despite international pressures.

"Venezuela has always been characterized by faithfully fulfilling its payment obligations for foreign debt services, despite the multiform criminal aggression perpetrated against the country," said Rodriguez.

The announcement Friday mentions that the deal is no longer available in its current form to creditors who refused to negotiate in September.

But the ministry made clear the Venezuelan is willing to talk and negotiate with creditors “with the purpose of achieving a debt restructuring in accordance with the rights and interests of all parties.”

And for creditors in countries with tense diplomatic and financial relations with the Venezuelan government, the announcement said: “For those bondholders who may have some type of limitation arising from their respective laws, national regulations or others and that limits them to establish contact with the issuers, it will be expected until such limitation is overcome in order to establish the conversations to which there may be the place.”