Venezuela going for broke

The Maduro government wants a new deal on its debt. Things are going to get messy

The inevitable has come to pass. During a 2 November national broadcast, Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro said the country could no longer pay its debts and he was setting up a commission to negotiate a restructuring with holders of sovereign and state oil company PdV bonds. Maduro blamed an "economic war" waged by the Trump administration, saying recent sanctions had given his government no choice but to seek a new debt deal. In truth, the sanctions are a useful scapegoat. Venezuela's economy has been crushed by economic mismanagement, the fall in the oil price and the heavy debt burden accumulated when prices were high. The government has only been able to keep up with the payments by