As a Debt Deadline Looms for Venezuela, Maduro Is Defiant<br />There was no grace period for the loan payment due on Thursday,<br />and it remained unclear how investors would react to the failure of the state oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, or Pdvsa, to make the payment on time.<br />Mr. Maduro has sought to avoid a default, which could trigger years of international legal battles among creditors for control of<br />Pdvsa assets outside Venezuela, including its American refinery subsidiary Citgo and tankers that deliver oil around the world.<br />The announcement came at the deadline for a $1.2 billion payment by the state oil company<br />on a maturing bond, which Mr. Maduro said his government would instead deliver on Friday.<br />International bond experts and the markets had been optimistic<br />that the Venezuelan state oil company would make the $1.2 billion payment on time on Thursday.<br />During a similar debt crunch in April, Rosneft provided a $1 billion advance payment<br />for oil, which was crucial for Pdvsa to make nearly $3 billion in bond payments.
