Venezuela’s government is ready to resume negotiations with foreign investors on about $60 billion of defaulted debt, according to President Nicolas Maduro, Bloomberg News reported. The embattled leader said Vice President Delcy Rodriguez and Economy Vice President Tareck El Aissami, both sanctioned by the U.S., will lead talks with bondholders. While actions by the Treasury Department prevent Venezuela from paying its debt through traditional means, Maduro said his government has alternatives, including cryptocurrencies.

Brazilian state-run development bank BNDES is facing losses of up to 14.6 billion reais ($3.5 billion) from loans made to conglomerate Odebrecht SA, which has been in bankruptcy protection since June, the bank said on Monday, Reuters reported. Of this total, 3.7 billion reais is related to federal government losses on export financing credits, and 8.7 billion reais is loans to companies under the Odebrecht Group umbrella, the BNDES said in a statement on its website.

Argentina’s presidential front-runner Alberto Fernandez said that if elected next month, he would aim to avoid haircuts on bond payments and seek a moderate “Uruguay-style” debt restructuring, music to the ears of the country’s creditors, Reuters reported. Investors are closely watching Fernandez’s comments on debt after the South American nation was forced to announce plans to renegotiate around $100 billion in bonds after a sharp market crash in August pushed the country toward default.

British emerging markets investor Ashmore Group is betting that Argentina’s current crisis, that has seen the country veer toward default, is not as bad as it looks, Reuters reported. The investment manager is buying Argentina’s dollar bonds in the belief the clear favorite to win next month’s general election, Alberto Fernandez, will be less radical in overhauling the government’s debt than markets now expect, one of its executives said on Wednesday.

Argentina’s financial program with the International Monetary Fund will be on hold for some time as the nation grapples with severe political and economic uncertainty, the Fund’s Acting Managing Director David Lipton said an interview, Bloomberg News reported. “Our job in this setting is to help them get through this period, give them advice, work toward an eventual resumption of a relationship -- some kind of financial relationship with them -- which may have to wait awhile,” Lipton told Bloomberg Radio on Wednesday.

President Jair Bolsonaro ’s administration is opening up one of the world’s most closed big economies, slashing import tariffs on more than 2,300 products and exposing local industries long accustomed to protectionism to the challenges of free trade, The Wall Street Journal reported. With little fanfare, the conservative government has since taking office in January eased the entry of ultrasonic scalpels, cancer drugs, heavy machinery and more, in some cases with tariffs reduced to zero from as much as 20%.

Western Hemisphere nations voted Monday to employ a regional treaty to impose sanctions against embattled Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, accusing his regime of criminal activity including drug trafficking and money laundering, The Wall Street Journal reported. In a meeting convened by the Organization of American States, 16 of the 19 states party to the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance, a 1947 pact known as the Rio Treaty, backed using the pact to collaborate on law-enforcement operations and economic sanctions against Mr. Maduro and his associates.

Argentina’s government can’t resolve growing investor concern over the ability to repay its debt alone and will require consensus with the opposition to reach an orderly reprofiling of its obligations, Economy Minister Hernan Lacunza said, Bloomberg News reported. With just a month before general elections and the handover for the next administration slated for Dec.

The board of Brazilian phone carrier Oi, currently under bankruptcy protection, has named Rodrigo Abreu as its new Chief Operating Officer, the company said in a securities filing on Friday, Reuters reported. Abreu was previously a member of Oi’s board, where he headed a committee that was advising the company’s senior management on the recovery plan. Oi said that Abreu, as COO, will oversee key areas for the company such as engineering, systems and operational performance.

Brazilian telecommunications firm Oi SA is in talks with Spain’s Telefonica SA and Italy’s Telecom Italia SpA to sell its mobile network to avoid insolvency, five people with knowledge of the matter said, Reuters reported. Oi has been struggling to turn around its business since filing for bankruptcy protection in June 2016 to restructure approximately 65 billion reais of debt.