Venezuela opposition says ‘hunger bonds’ pay for Russia weapons

Venezuela’s opposition is turning up the heat on Wall Street banks by alleging that some of the proceeds from a recent bond sale will be used to purchase weapons and help keep President Nicolas Maduro in power.

In a letter dated June 1, Julio Borges, the president of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, said that at least $300 million in proceeds from the central bank’s “fire sale” of bonds to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Nomura Holdings Inc. will be used to purchase weapons from Russia.

The sale “provides resources to the regime to purchase instruments of war that will be used to savagely repress the hundreds of thousands of peaceful protesters demanding free and fair elections and democracy in our country,” Borges said in the letter that was addressed to Nomura’s chief executive officer, Koji Nagai .... https://www.bloomberg.com