Venezuela Creditors' Portal

CARACAS, 16th October 2019 – The Office of the Special Prosecutor of Venezuela, part of interim president Juan Guaido’s administration, issued a statement regarding the payment of the PDVSA 2020 bonds. We provide a translation of the text below, while the original statement can be found here https://presidenciave.com/es/internacional/comunicado-de-la-oficina-del-procurador-especial-de-la-republica-sobre-el-bono-pdvsa-2020/

Statement by the Office of the Special Prosecutor of Venezuela regarding the PDVSA 2020 bond

Abiding by our principles of efficiency, transparency, relevance and access to the information to which we are committed, the Office of the Special Prosecutor of the Republic communicates to the Venezuelan public opinion the following information that seeks to reply the concerns or questions that have arisen about the situation and management of the so-called “2020 Bonds”:

1. On April 24 of this year, the National Assembly authorized the payment of interest of the PDVSA 2020 Bond under protest, a legal mechanism that allowed this payment to be made without acknowledging the legal validity of the Bond that was rejected by the National Assembly on 27 September 2016. This was a wise decision, rational and adjusted to national and international law that allowed to build the necessary conditions to design and implement the strategy to defend not only the interests of PDVSA, but also the defence of Citgo Holding, Inc ., 50.1% of whose capital was provided by the usurping regime as a guarantee of the 2020 bonds.

2. As this Office explained in a statement dated May 7, the payment under protest allowed us to be capable to advance in that strategy, keeping the rights of PDVSA intact, as agreed by the National Assembly on April 24.

3. The strategy implemented in April was consistent with that mandate. It has insisted on protection measures for Citgo Holding, Inc., especially covered by Executive Order No. 13,884 of August 5, 2019, which blocked all Venezuelan properties in the United States, beyond the previously granted licenses. At the same time, legal support has been provided to the ad-hoc administrative board of PDVSA, to reach a reasonable renegotiation arrangement for the 2020 Bond, which takes into account the questions raised by the National Assembly in 2016 and the complex humanitarian emergency that Venezuela is going thorugh.

4. The payment under protest made last April does not contradict this strategy. On the contrary, this payment was made precisely to have the necessary conditions and time to design and implement a strategy aimed at safeguarding the rights of PDVSA derived from the 2020 Bond, while promoting a consensual and negotiated arrangement with the holders of that Bond that takes into account the decisions that the National Assembly has been formulating on the matter. If that payment had not been made, the risk of losing Citgo would have been high, given the impossibility of implementing an adequate protection strategy.