President Maduro vowed that Venezuela would never become insolvent

President Maduro’s defiant pledge that his country would avoid insolvency at all costs appeared to unravel last night when the socialist state and its nationalised oil company were declared to be in technical default on debt repayments.

Venezuela, once the richest country in Latin America, and its oil industry which sits on the world’s largest proven reserves, failed to make interest payments of hundreds of millions of dollars, despite a 30-day grace period.

On Sunday, Mr Maduro said in a televised address: “Venezuela will never default, it will never happen. Venezuela will always have a clear strategy and now our strategy is to renegotiate and refinance all of Venezuela’s external debt.”

Hours later the Fitch ratings agency declared the PDVSA oil company, the source of