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Representatives of the two sides signed an agreement in Mexico City on Friday, officially opening a dialogue mediated by Norway.
According to Agence France-Presse, the Venezuelan government and opposition members are starting negotiations in Mexico City to seek an elusive consensus on how to overcome the economic and social crisis that has plagued the country.
Representatives of the two sides signed an agreement in Mexico City on Friday, officially launching a dialogue with the mediation of Norway and hosted by the Mexican government.
The administration of President Nicolas Maduro is urging to lift the sanctions imposed by the United States and Europe on Venezuelan officials and institutions, which they regard as criminal activities and the country’s suppression of democracy.
For its part, the opposition in the oil-producing South American country wants Maduro to release dozens of people he considers to be political prisoners and to ensure that his candidates can participate in the regional elections scheduled for November. It also requires that humanitarian assistance, such as the COVID-19 vaccine, be allowed.
Norway also helped facilitate the negotiations before 2019, but they ended in no avail. In 2016, the Vatican supported similar negotiations, but they also failed.
The expectation of success in the first round in Mexico has been tempered by past experience.
“Venezuela’s conditions are simply not suitable for the upcoming talks to provide a’big bang’ moment. [Maduro] The presidential palace will immediately restore democracy,” Maryhen Jimenez, a scholar at the Latin American Center of Oxford University, wrote in The Americas Quarterly.
Returning to the negotiating table is a shift from the opposition, which accused Maduro of using dialogue in the past to gain time and ease international pressure.
After the United States strengthened sanctions on the Maduro government, Venezuelan government officials abandoned the talks held in Barbados and Norway in 2019.
Signs of serious talk
If Maduro shows signs of serious negotiations with the opposition, Washington has expressed its willingness to relax sanctions.
But President Joe Biden’s government has extensively maintained measures aimed at Venezuela’s economy and continues to support opposition leader Juan Guaido, who is recognized by Washington and other governments as the country’s legitimate leader.
In January 2019, Guaido announced that he was interim president after claiming that Maduro’s 2018 re-election was fraudulent. However, Guaido’s status has weakened since then, mainly because he was disappointed in his failure to usher in the political transition.
Maduro’s position was supported by Russia and China. Sources close to the talks said that Russian representatives will attend the Mexico City talks.
On Sunday, during the November regional governor and mayor election primaries held by Venezuela’s ruling Socialist Party in Caracas, voters waited to vote [Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/Reuters]According to Reuters, the opposition delegation will include former mayor and lawyer Gerardo Blyde; Tomas Guanipa, the ambassador to Colombia appointed by parliament in 2015; Carlos Vecchio, Guaido government ambassador to the United States; and former legislator Stalin Gonzalez.
Guaidó wrote on social media on Friday that Venezuela “needs and deserves a solution”.
Guaidó declared himself the President of Venezuela by serving as the Speaker of the Parliament in 2019. He hopes to guarantee election conditions and a clear presidential election plan, as well as the release of political prisoners.
The Maduro government’s negotiating team will be led by the President of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodriguez, and the president elected in December, as well as the governor of Miranda State, the Governor of the State of Rockrie Grieg, is in close contact according to the President’s Trustee.
Maduro said in a live broadcast on national television on Thursday night that his son, 31-year-old MP Nicolas “Nicolosito” Maduro Gera will also participate in the talks.
The Venezuelan crisis has caused a large-scale exodus. The Organization of American States recently estimated that by 2022, the population will reach 7 million, the largest number in the world, surpassing Syria and other countries.
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