Payment of the PDVSA 2020 bonus generates struggles to the National Assembly

Miguel Rodríguez Fandeo, who was a member of the cabinet of former President Carlos Andrés Pérez, published a video on Youtube in which he lashed out at the decision and ordered those in charge to obtain an executive order from the President of the United States to avoid paying the 71, 6 million dollars.

Caracas. Since the National Assembly (AN) agreed on May 7 to pay the interest of the PDVSA 2020 bond, which expired on April 27 and entered a grace period, the decision has generated tensions among Venezuelans. The impasse escalated until the governor of Venezuela at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Ricardo Hausmann, and the former president of the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV), Miguel Rodríguez Fandeo.

Rodríguez Fandeo, who was a member of the cabinet of former President Carlos Andrés Pérez, published a video on YouTube in which he lashed out at the decision and ordered those in charge to obtain an executive order from the President of the United States to avoid paying the 71.6 millions of dollars. The situation generated the response of the current representative of Venezuela to the IDB.

“There are many people with influence in the American government who are trying to stay with Citgo, either through Crystallex, who have already won a lawsuit and are well positioned, considering PDVSA an alter ego of the government and therefore PDVSA's assets are assets of the Republic and since the Republic did not pay Crystallex to be paid with Citgo shares ”, Hausmann responds through an audio.

50% of the shares of Citgo Holding Inc, one of the refineries of Citgo Petroleum, a subsidiary of PDVSA in the US, are at risk of being left out of the control of the Venezuelan State if the debt is not paid. In that sense, Parliament assures that it was the correct decision, due to the value of the company that is around 7,000 million dollars .

"In Texas there are many people who want to buy Citgo and who would bet that their shares would be sold, what we are doing here is trying to protect Citgo, valued at 7 billion dollars, which is important for Venezuela and its recovery," he adds the governor of the IDB.

According to Hausmann, getting an executive order is not an easy process, and he also maintains that there is "infinite opposition on many sides" about the measure. "The only reason why 2020 is being paid is because our negotiation situation is very weak, that is why the payment of this coupon is agreed," he said.

For his part, the economist Rodríguez Fandeo rectified the statements and stated "that the payment of the 71 million dollars was inevitable", given the non-existence of the executive order of the president of the United States protecting the assets of Venezuela in That country.