Venezuela has been in talks with Russia about its $1 billion debt restructuring, TASS news agency quoted Venezuela's envoy to Moscow as saying on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Russia has slashed projected revenue by nearly $1 billion to reflect expectations that Venezuela may not make timely payments on bilateral loans, according to a document released by Russia's Audit Chamber on Tuesday. Read more.

Venezuela’s opposition is turning up the heat on Wall Street banks by alleging that some of the proceeds from a recent bond sale will be used to purchase weapons and help keep President Nicolas Maduro in power, Bloomberg News reported. In a letter dated June 1, Julio Borges, the president of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, said that at least $300 million in proceeds from the central bank’s “fire sale” of bonds to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Nomura Holdings Inc. will be used to purchase weapons from Russia.

Investors’ hunger for yield can appear callous when people are genuinely starving. One of the more anomalous trades in emerging market debt originates in Venezuela, the South American nation in the midst of a brutal economic meltdown that has resulted in a malnutrition outbreak. Against the odds, the country has been intent on servicing its financial obligations — dubbed “Hunger Bonds” by Ricardo Hausmann, a former Venezuelan official, the Financial Times reported.

Massive anti-government protests in Venezuela that have left about 30 people dead couldn’t stem the biggest rally in two years for the country’s bonds, Bloomberg News reported. Despite food and medicine shortages, the government has reiterated its willingness to stay current on debt, and state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA made good on a $2.2 billion bond payment last month. The implied probability of the country missing a payment in the next 12 months fell to 50 percent from 56 percent at the end of March, according to credit-default swaps data compiled by Bloomberg.

Venezuela was once among the most lucrative markets in Latin America for foreign businesses, a country oozing in oil and blessed with an emerging middle class hungry for everything modern, from new cars to snug-fitting disposable diapers. But the good times are long gone, and on Thursday, General Motors became the latest in a wave of international companies that have shut their doors voluntarily or under duress, the International New York Times reported. In G.M.’s case, the Venezuelan authorities seized the company’s local vehicle assembly plant.

Bonds issued by Venezuela’s state oil company rallied after the country made $2.2 billion in payments on notes that matured Wednesday, Bloomberg News reported. The $1.1 billion of notes from Petroleos de Venezuela that come due in seven months gained 2.1 cents to 87.3 cents on the dollar as of 3:17 p.m. in New York. The payment, which was confirmed by Delaware Trust Company, strengthened investor confidence that the nation can avoid default for yet another year.

Venezuela has put off a reckoning on its tens of billions of dollars in debt, but its ability to avoid a disastrous default will probably require much higher oil prices than appear likely in the next year or two, financial experts say. With its oil production and international reserves falling at an accelerating rate, the government is juggling as fast as it can to pay for imported food and medicines while meeting its short-term bond payments, the International New York Times reported.

Venezuela’s willingness to honor its debts is coming under fresh scrutiny even as the will-they-or-won’t-they jitters surrounding a $2.1 billion payment this week have largely subsided. The bonds from the state oil company maturing Wednesday traded as low as 94 cents on the dollar last week, showing a lack of confidence that Petroleos de Venezuela SA would come up with the needed cash, Bloomberg News reported. The securities shot up to 97 cents on Friday after PDVSA issued a statement saying it had already begun the payment process.

Venezuela’s state-owned oil company should be stopped from plundering its U.S. subsidiary Citgo Holding Inc., according to court papers filed Monday evening by a creditor seeking $1.4 billion from the South American country. Canadian mining company Crystallex International Corp. asked a Delaware federal judge for an injunction blocking Petróleos de Venezuela SA—also known as PdVSA—from taking cash or transferring assets from Citgo, the U.S. crude refiner owned by PdVSA.

The sell-off in dollar bonds issued by Venezuela and state-owned oil company PDVSA picked up steam on Tuesday as the spiraling crisis in the South American country triggered fresh fears of a default ahead of a multi-billion bond payment due next week, the Financial Times reported. The country’s benchmark 2027 bond fell 3 per cent to a 10-month low of 44.6 cents on the dollar. Bonds issued by PDVSA also took a leg lower, with the note due in 2035 down 2.7 per cent at 43.1 cents on the dollar.