Brazilian construction conglomerate Odebrecht SA has proposed cutting the debt of its ethanol unit Atvos by between 35% to 75%, newspaper Valor Economico reported on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Citing court documents, Valor said Odebrecht proposed a 35% haircut on secured debt and 75% on the unsecured debt of its ethanol unit. Atvos debt subject to restructuring, excluding credits owed to other units of the Odebrecht conglomerate will have a global haircut of 46%, reducing its total financial debt from 10.5 billion reais ($2.65 billion) to 5.7 billion reais, the newspaper said.

Venezuela’s opposition on Tuesday celebrated a sweeping U.S. sanctions order against the government of President Nicolas Maduro, saying the measure would protect Venezuela-owned U.S.-based refiner Citgo from seizure by creditors, Reuters reported. Three allies of opposition leader Juan Guaido also said the measure allowed for restructuring negotiations with bondholders, which had been prohibited under previous sanctions. That could be key to protecting Citgo, since half of state oil company PDVSA’s shares in the refiner were put up as collateral for its 2020 bond.

The story of what came to be known as the Barings Crisis of 1890 is studied by economic historians as the biggest sovereign debt meltdown of the century, Bloomberg News reported. But for Argentines, the fallout reverberates outside the pages of textbooks; for the same elements of boom and egregious bust lie at the root of the country’s economic and political upheaval to the present day. Argentina has spent 33% of the time since 1950 in recession, according to a World Bank report released in May.

Samarco Mineracao SA, the Brazilian mining venture that hasn’t operated since a deadly dam collapse in 2015, is close to regaining a license to restart production and move closer to paying back $3.5 billion in defaulted debt, Bloomberg News reported. The license will most likely be granted within the second half of this year, the Minas Gerais state environmental agency press department said in an email. A Samarco spokeswoman declined to comment. Negotiations with creditors will resume in October following the license renewal, according to a person with direct knowledge of the plans.

Argentine presidential candidate Alberto Fernandez said his government would stop paying interest on central bank notes if he wins this year’s elections, Bloomberg News reported. Fernandez would cease interest payments on notes known as Leliq, used to implement monetary policy, in order to raise retiree pensions by 20% once he takes office Dec. 10, according to an interview that aired Sunday. “We’re going to stop paying the interest on Leliqs that Argentines are paying for every day,” Fernandez told local outlet El Destape in an interview.

After years of expropriations, hyperinflation, bankruptcies and financial collapse, what remains of Venezuela’s private sector might be forgiven for giving up hope, the Financial Times reported. But business people in Venezuela say the economic crisis in the South American nation has hastened moves by President Nicolás Maduro’s government away from the full-blooded socialism of his predecessor Hugo Chávez towards a freer market. “As business people we have wanted free prices and a free flow of dollars for many years,” one senior executive at a consumer goods said.

President Jair Bolsonaro will give Brazilians early access this year to as much as 30 billion reais ($8 billion) in funds normally set aside for the unemployed in an effort to spur the country’s moribund economy, The Wall Street Journal reported. A measure announced Wednesday by Economy Minister Paulo Guedes will allow Brazilian workers, starting in September, to take up to 500 reais of the money currently reserved in accounts set up by law by employers for workers who lose their jobs.

As negative yields engulf everything from Brazil’s state oil company to Hungarian sovereign debt to euro junk, investors are seeking refuge in high-yield bond ETFs, Bloomberg News reported. Europe-listed funds have attracted over 5 billion euros ($5.6 billion) since January, more than in any full year going back to at least 2010, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence. The largest exchange-traded fund tracking the debt -- BlackRock Inc.’s 8.5 billion-euro IHYG -- took in 640 million euros in the week ended July 5, smashing a record it set just two weeks before, the data show.

Loans to Venezuela from President Nicolas Maduro’s allies Russia and China would be renegotiated though the Paris Club if Maduro leaves power, an advisor to the opposition said on Wednesday, responding to concerns about favourable treatment for the two countries, Reuters reported. Ricardo Hausmann, who represents opposition leader Juan Guaido at the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), said Guaido’s team has not determined how loans might be restructured under its governance because bilateral debt talks typically take place under the auspices of the Paris Club creditor group.

Brazilian telecom carrier Oi SA disclosed on Tuesday a new strategic plan aiming to divest up to 7.5 billion reais ($2 billion) in non-core assets and focus on its fiber-to-home (FTTH) broadband service, Reuters reported. The company, which filed for bankruptcy protection in June 2016 to restructure approximately 65 billion reais of debt, plans to sell towers, data centers, real estate assets, its Angolan subsidiary Unitel and other non-strategic assets between 2019 and 2021.