WHAT COULD GO WRONG? Venezuela is blowing debt payments ahead of a huge, make-or-break bill.

The nation’s state-owned oil giant, Petroleos de Venezuela, SA, has two major bond payments totaling about $2 billion coming due in the next two weeks. While the market expects the company, better known as PDVSA, to avoid default, the missed payments have rattled investors and raised fresh questions about how long embattled President Nicolas Maduro’s regime might last.

“You’re cutting close to the edge of not enough money in the checking account to pay the bills,” said Ray Zucaro, chief investment officer at RVX Asset Management, an asset manager specializing in emerging and frontier markets.

Last week, Venezuela missed five coupon payments totaling nearly $350 million tied to the debt of PDVSA, the government and the utility Electricidad de Caracas. That stoked a minor sell-off in a number of outstanding bonds.

This news comes after a report two weeks ago that inflation in Venezuela is expected to hit 2,300% next year. If Caracas runs the printing presses even faster to make these bond payments, inflation will go even higher. But if they don’t make the payments, Venezuela’s foreign trade trade takes a big hit.

Which is a serious problem, because under Chavez and Maduro, Venezuela’s only reliable domestic products are zeros and misery.