Restricting Trading in Venezuela’s Sovereign Bonds: Has it Worked?

The Biden administration has continued the Trump administration’s strategy of restricting trading in Venezuelan sovereign bonds as a way of bringing to heel Venezuela’s Nicholas Maduro. Has that (innovative?) strategy shown any signs of working? Thomas Laryea (Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe) is one of the most respected voices in the policy space on sovereign debt, with extensive experience in both the public and private sector, joins us to answer this and other questions. We ask Thomas both about what is going to happen with Venezuela’s eventual debt restructuring given the policies that have been in place for the last five years and about his evaluation of the two new mechanisms that the Official Sector put in place to deal with the debt fallout from Covid, DSSI and the Common Framework.

Producer: Leanna Doty