maduro will zahlen

 

Q: It will be difficult to impossible to re-energize the economy without access to international capital markets. Difficult. Will that require a restructuring of your foreign debt? Surely.

A: That’s right.

Q: What would be a reasonable discount for your creditors?

A: Look. We are good payers. We’ve paid all our obligations, until the cruel and irrational sanction politics came. We got to a point where -- in the stage where we still had important revenue, that the sanctions hadn’t caused as much damage as they later caused, where we were impeded from paying, because our bank accounts were frozen. In New York, in Europe. There came a point where they eliminated all our bank accounts. If I had here today, the payment for our creditors, for the creditors of the Republic -- if I had right now a bag of dollars here, $17 billionthat they’ve stopped collecting, as a product of the brutality of the sanctions, I wouldn’t be able to pay them, because there are no bank accounts in the world that accept deposits from the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. I wouldn’t be able to pay them. So, it’s been insane what’s been done. Venezuela has been a good payer, and Venezuela has been a good partner, regarding the financial agreements. You’ve asked a question. Look: could the development be achieved, without access to the capital market? It’s a structural question. We have asked it. Could it be achieved, without access to the capital market? And the capital market is governed by the International Monetary Fund, by the World Bank. And the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, is governed by the United States of North America. We have an answer to that.

Q: I understand, and I’m talking about a different world. A world, a moment in which you can pay. Will you pay the whole amount or restructure?

A: Look, we’ve declared a renegotiation of the debt. And we are in contact with all the bondholders. They know that we want to pay. It’s our obligation and our duty. And we have a plan to make a reorganization and generate the resources, that in a progressive way go toward a normalization in the levels of payment. Now, that merits that the holders achieve basic conditions with the government of the United States. With the western powers of G7, so that Venezuela can have access to the bank accounts. So that Venezuela can have access to those capital markets, so that Venezuela can regularize. That’s why I say to you, if I had here the $17 billion that we owe at this moment, that we weren’t able to pay because of the sanctions, I wouldn’t be able to do it. So, there are many things to change. There are many things to change. Nobody can accuse Venezuela of being a cheat. Of being a bad payer. We always pay. Since 2013, as President, until 2018, we paid approximately $64 billion. Now Venezuela has to produce them, because if Venezuela can’t produce oil and sell it, can’t produce and sell its gold, can’t produce its bauxite and sell it, can’t produce iron, etc., etc., and in the international market it can’t manage to have its money, where is it going to get money to pay the holders that have the Venezuelan debt? So… this world has to be changed. These situations have to be changed. And we have to achieve a situation where we can regularize that relationship. I’m willing to regularize it. I have the plan. Our Executive Vice President, Minister of Finance, has presented the plan to the holders. They know that we are willing. They know that our plan is viable. That our plan is viable. And furthermore, it’s very bold. It’s very smart. And that the financial engineering that we’re proposing to build, has viability. So, well, let’s take the steps that we need to take to regularize that relationship.