Deep DiveOctober 8, 2026
The First Creditor
Three million public employees and five million pensioners are owed money by the same Republic that owes the bondholders. This installment opens the largest line in the Venezuelan budget, measures the labour liabilities a legal salary of fifteen US cents has kept hidden, and costs the wage and pension settlements a restructured budget could carry.
No. 32 of this series built the Venezuelan budget from the cash upward and found that wages, bonuses and pensions were its largest line and the one most certain to rise. No. 33 showed that any hard monetary anchor would force the state to say, in dollars, what it pays its own people. This installment goes inside that line. Seven findings.