Venezuela Set for $60b Debt Talks

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s socialist government has set a high-profile location near the presidential palace in Caracas for Monday’s hotly awaited meeting with investors to discuss renegotiating $60 billion in foreign debt, Reuters reported. The newly created debt renegotiation committee will meet with creditors at 1800 GMT at the government’s ‘White Palace’ opposite the presidential building, Finance Minister Simon Zerpa said. Market sources had said Zerpa plus committee head and Venezuelan Vice President Tareck El Aissami, who are both on US sanctions lists for corruption and drug-trafficking accusations respectively, would sit out the meeting to allay any fears about legal repercussions for anyone meeting them. But Zerpa’s exhortation to attend, plus the location of the meeting right opposite the Miraflores presidential palace, appear to indicate the meeting will not be a low-profile affair. “Once again, we invite investors to register their participation in this meeting,” Zerpa, who is also the finance boss of state oil company PDVSA, said in a Tweet.