CARACAS, May 9 (Reuters) – Venezuela is open to paying its $10 billion debt to China, lawmaker Nicolas Maduro Guerra, son of President Nicolas Maduro, told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.
Venezuela’s relationship with China is “foolproof and weatherproof,” Maduro Guerra said, adding that Chinese companies are open to investing in the South American country.
China is a major player in Venezuela’s oil and gas sector and the OPEC country’s largest creditor where in 2007 it reached a $50 billion agreement for credit lines and loans-for-oil deals with the South American country’s then-leader, Hugo Chavez.
President Maduro’s government had to negotiate grace periods for loans worth $19 billion in August 2020, and Venezuela currently owes the Asian giant some $10 billion.
Maduro Guerra, an economist, is his father’s oldest child from a previous marriage and is a close confident of the president, who is running for re-election in voting scheduled for July.
The elections are due to take place amid complaints that opposition politicians are treated unfairly, prompting the U.S. to reimpose sanctions on the OPEC nation’s oil industry.
In publishing its decision last month, Washington gave companies 45 days to “close” their businesses and transactions with Venezuela’s oil and gas industry.
