Envoys from the Venezuelan government and opposition met this Friday in Paris without being able to unblock the expected return to negotiations in Mexico Despite international pressure, led by the French president, Emmanuel Macron.
“We are making progress, we are doing well. We think that this event of the Paris Forum on Peace has made it possible to help and accompany this effort to resume dialogue,” said Jorge Rodríguez, the Venezuelan president’s envoy Nicholas Maduro.
“Hopefully we can give you good news soon” about the resumption of negotiations, the opposition representative told the press, Gerard Blydeensuring that there is “will of both parties”.
The fifth edition of the Paris Forum on Peace became the stage for discussions between the two parties, as requested by “Venezuelans and other Latin American countries,” its president, Pascal Lamy, told AFP.
“Negotiations between the regime and the opposition must resume as soon as possible in Mexico, starting with a humanitarian agreement and then, I hope, with political guarantees,” the French leader said the day before.
To try to encourage a return to negotiations, Macron, his Colombian counterparts, Gustavo Petroand from Argentina, Alberto Fernandezas well as the Norwegian chancellor, Anniken Huitfeldt, held a meeting with both prior to their discussion.
The three presidents urged them to return to Mexico, to reach agreements in the humanitarian and political fields and expressed their willingness to accompany them in this process, “only way” to resolve the “crisis“, according to a joint statement.
“This initiative aims to encourage Venezuelan political actors to agree on a way out of the crisis, with a view to free, democratic presidential elections and with international electoral observation in 2024,” they add.
The ruling party and the opposition began negotiations in Mexico in August 2021 after two failed initiatives. But Maduro froze them two months later for the extradition to the United States of Alex Saab, a businessman close to the government.
Rodríguez again denounced the “kidnapping” of Saab, which he described as a “diplomatic delegate” of Venezuela and the international sanctions imposed on Caracas, but assured that a social agreement with the opposition is “quite well defined.”
Rodríguez also pointed out, in statements offered to government television, that the reestablishment of negotiations with opponents is conditional on the lifting of sanctions on Venezuela.
“Venezuela has 762 revolvers to the head, 762 sanctions,” said the Maduro delegate when questioning the measures that affect the oil industry, the state airline Conviasa, as well as other operations.
“Every discussion event, every dialogue event, every negotiation event necessarily happens” because the sanctions “are lifted,” he reiterated.
if the world changes
In recent days, there has been speculation about a resumption of the process, especially when the international context changed that led the United States and fifty countries to ignore Maduro’s re-election in 2018 and support the opponent. Juan Guaido.
The Russian offensive in Ucraniaafter years of a global pandemic, strained relations with Western countries and caused an increase in energy and food prices, but prompted a change in position with Caracas.
Washington lifted some of its sanctions and the administration of President Joe Biden does not hide the fact that Venezuelan hydrocarbons could be useful in the international market in the midst of an energy crisis.
Regionally, the shift to the left spread to Chile, Colombia y Brazil. Petro, the first leftist Colombian president, resumed his relations with neighboring Venezuela and even met with his Venezuelan counterpart.
For his predecessor, Iván Duque, the Venezuelan president is trying to “buy time”, “he will present himself again in 2024 and manipulate”, while he continues to “annihilate” “freedoms”, and “fooled” even Macron, according to what he told the AFP days ago.
An international pariah in recent years, Nicolás Maduro held a brief informal discussion in Egypt on Monday with his French counterpart, who agreed to call him to “undertake useful bilateral work for the region.”
Although this did not imply a change in the position of Paris, the French presidency indicated on Tuesday that they would see how to “move” their position on Maduro, whose reelection is unknown, based on the result of the current “dynamics” in the discussions.
The opposition envoy downplayed that meeting and assured that “Macron is a democrat but he understands well that solutions must be found.”
“If the world changes, we have the obligation to use the best tools we have to seek democracy and freedom in Venezuela,” added Blyde, for whom the objective continues to be to achieve “freedom, democracy, respect for the citizen and human rights “.
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