2023-10-16 19:16:53
The government and opposition of Venezuela announced this Monday that they will resume the political negotiation process, shortly after Washington reached an agreement with Nicolás Maduro despite not formally recognizing him as president.
The parties reported in a statement their decision to “restart the dialogue and negotiation process, facilitated by Norway, with the aim of reaching a political agreement.”
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“Meetings will begin on October 17 in Bridgetown, Barbados,” the text added.
The talks, which until now had taken place in Mexico, began in August 2021, but in October of that year they were suspended after the extradition to the United States of businessman Alex Saab, accused of money laundering and accused of being a front man for the Venezuelan president. , Nicolás Maduro.
They were briefly resumed, but in November 2022 there was a new rupture after the Maduro government conditioned the dialogue on the disbursement of $3 billion of frozen Venezuelan funds abroad and administered by the United Nations.
The official delegates also demanded the cessation of financial sanctions imposed by the United States, which include an oil embargo, and the European Union.
The main point of the opposition agenda has to do with electoral conditions and the lifting of disqualifications of possible candidates, such as María Corina Machado, favorite in the October 22 primaries that will define Maduro’s rival in next year’s elections.
– “Free and fair” –
The resumption also coincides with an agreement between the United States and the Maduro government for “the direct repatriation” of undocumented Venezuelans, given a growing increase in migration in that country.
Washington has ignored Maduro since 2019, when he was sworn in for a second term, considering that his re-election a year earlier was fraudulent.
The US government has already expressed its willingness to progressively lift the financial sanctions it imposed on the country if agreements are reached for next year’s elections.
Washington asks that the elections, in which Maduro aspires to re-election, be “free and fair.”
“All compatriots are welcome,” the president celebrated shortly after the agreement.
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– “Negotiated exit” –
The Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, reported last week of the contacts between the parties to restart the process.
“It’s good that a negotiated, political solution is being sought through democratic means,” he said on October 13 in his usual morning press conference.
The Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, also welcomed “the restart of negotiations between the Venezuelan government and the opposition,” although they had not yet been announced.
“The unlocking of Venezuela is fundamental for the prosperity of its people and the reduction of exoduses to the United States,” the president wrote on the social network X.
Petro already tried to revive the talks through a meeting in April that brought together 20 countries in Bogotá, including the United States, which were in favor of easing sanctions in exchange for guarantees for the 2024 elections, in which Maduro will seek his third mandate.
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