Venezuela has the world’s highest inflation, estimated by the International Monetary Fund to reach 653% this year. The country has been ravaged by shortages of food and medicine, and months of protests that cost more than 120 lives. As Mr. Maduro has consolidated power, the opposition has been weakened and divided . The government and state-owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela SA, or PdVSA, together owe billions of dollars in principal and interest payments in the coming months , including $1.2 billion due Thursday. Mr. Maduro and other Venezuelan government officials have said they would pay off their debt , and in recent years investors have been rewarded with some of the best returns in emerging markets. Venezuela’s finances are somewhat of a mystery because the country releases limited data. However, its foreign reserves have been dwindling. That means Venezuela is dependent on oil exports to make up the […]