Venezuela: Empty Coffers

VENEZUELA

Empty Coffers

Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro called for a broad restructuring of its foreign debt on Thursday, further ramping up fears that a default may be imminent.

Maduro said Thursday that Venezuela will make a crucial $1.1 billion bond payment for its state energy firm, PDVSA, on Friday. But Maduro’s unilateral declaration of “a refinancing and restructuring of all foreign payments” was an acknowledgement that the country can’t keep servicing its debt given sanctions, low oil prices and other stresses, the Washington Post reported.

While those stresses are intended to force Maduro to back off moves that local protesters and the international community view as undermining democracy, a default could make things much worse before they get better.

Yesterday’s statement doesn’t necessarily mean that’s imminent, but “it suggests that he’s preparing the terrain for default for next year, when the country has $11 billion due in a year when there are also presidential elections,” said Asdrubal Oliveros of Caracas-based Ecoanalítica.

CUBA

Pointing Fingers

As the United Nations once again called for an end to the US embargo on his country, Cuba’s foreign minister accused Washington of “deliberately lying” in characterizing the mysterious health problems experienced by US staff as the result of some kind of attack.

At a press conference on Thursday, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla blamed the US for politicizing the incident, ABC News reported. “I can categorically affirm that those that say there have been attacks … are deliberately lying,” the news channel quoted Parrilla as saying.

Parrilla didn’t deny that the 24 Americans in question had experienced mysterious health problems. But he said Cuba had not found any evidence that they resulted from an attack and would continue to investigate to “find the truth.”

Initial US speculation was that the symptoms – which included permanent hearing loss, loss of balance and dizziness, and cognitive issues – were caused by a sonic device. But despite four visits to Cuba by FBI investigators, they have yet to discover a device or any other technology that could be responsible.

DISCOVERIES

We Have Visitors

Astronomers were baffled last week when they noticed an interstellar object moving at high speeds through our solar system – the first time such an event has occurred.

Now they are racing to learn more about this strange visitor before it disappears.

Named A/2017 U1, it is likely an asteroid about a quarter of a mile long. It was first noticed by scientists Oct. 19 and was instantly flagged for its incredible speed – so fast that the Sun couldn’t catch it in its orbit, the New York Times reported.

That’s due to the asteroid’s very old hyperbolic orbit, which slings it past celestial bodies at speeds high enough to overpower their gravitational pull. That means that A/2017 U1 will eventually leave our solar system.

The asteroid came within about 15 million miles of Earth on Oct. 14, passing by at a speed of about 37 miles per second – more than three times the escape velocity of the New Horizons spacecraft.

But movie lovers should have no fear – neither aliens, nor an interstellar Armageddon is in the cards, NASA’s planetary defense officers say.