The opposition criticizes Maduro's lack of proposals to renegotiate the debt

The Venezuelan opposition today criticized the lack of proposals from the Government of Nicolás Maduro to holders of government bonds to undertake the refinancing of the external debt that the country Caribbean needs to avoid consummating a suspension of payments that was already declared by Standard & Poor's.

Caracas, Nov 14 (EFE) .- The Venezuelan opposition today criticized the lack of proposals by the Government of Nicolás Maduro to holders of government bonds to undertake the refinancing of the external debt that the Caribbean country needs to avoid consummating a suspension of payments that was already declared by Standard & Poor's.

A government commission headed by the vice president Tareck el Aissami met yesterday in Caracas with Venezuelan bondholders, who had been summoned to begin discussing a possible refinancing or restructuring of the debt.

In a press conference in the Parliament, the opposition deputy Rafael Guzman described as "fiasco" the meeting with the bondholders, which, he said, "did not even attend the 20% "of the creditors of the Venezuelan State and" where no alternative was given "or" a refinancing plan was presented to them. "

Guzmán also reproached the Government for not having explained to the bondholders -some of whom had traveled specifically from the United States- "what are the economic measures that the Government can execute to generate new confidence so that the debt can be refinanced. "

According to sources close to several Venezuelan debt holders contacted by Efe, the representatives of the Caracas government limited themselves to blaming the financial sanctions of the United States of the problems of access to money that the State has, in addition to asking its creditors for collaboration to end these sanctions.

Guzmán criticized that El Aissami had "the toupee (the cheek) to insinuate to the holders that they made the lobby in front of the Department of the Treasury so that they lifted the sanctions and so they to be able to pay in peace. "

The US credit rating agency Standard & Poor's downgraded Venezuela's sovereign debt in foreign currency to" default "on Monday after failed to pay interest on two bonds.

Standard & Poor's made this decision after not paying on time the Venezuelan authorities 200 million dollars of coupons corresponding global bonds issued with due dates in 2019 and 2024.

The payment was not made after this weekend the 30 days of the grace period were fulfilled.

In As a consequence, the firm placed SD / D (default of selective payment) on Venezuela's sovereign debt in the long and short term in foreign currency.

"The non-payment that has occurred in the last few days by the Republic has been for the irresponsibility of the Government to order these payments late, "said the deputy, who blamed the futility of Monday's meeting the "worst rating" that Standard & Poor's gave to the Venezuelan debt.

Guzmán also reminded that any refinancing of the debt must be approved by the Parliament to be legal.

Since the opposition victory in the legislative elections of December 2015, the Government has not presented its budgets or debt laws before the House, which has closed the doors apart from international financing.