2023-10-16 22:12:35
– The government and the opposition resume negotiations
Interrupted for almost a year, negotiations between the Venezuelan government and the opposition will resume this Tuesday to try to get the country out of the crisis.
Published today at 12:12 a.m.
The Venezuelan opposition is demanding in particular the eligibility of all its candidates in the presidential election which will see President Maduro seek a new mandate.
AFP
The Venezuelan government of President Nicolás Maduro and the opposition announced on Monday the resumption of negotiations, frozen for almost a year, to try to get the country out of the serious economic and political crisis it is going through. The United States will participate in these discussions which take place shortly after an agreement between Washington and Caracas on immigration.
Government and opposition will meet on Tuesday in Bridgetown, Barbados, according to a press release. The two parties will “resume the process of dialogue and negotiation, facilitated by Norway, with the aim of reaching a political settlement” of the crisis, they specify.
Washington welcomed this announcement. “Together with like-minded partners and other friends of Venezuela, the United States will continue its efforts to unite the international community in support of the Venezuelan-led negotiation process,” a State Department statement said.
Extradition d’Alex Saab
The government and the opposition, supported by many countries including the United States, began negotiations in Mexico in August 2021 after aborted attempts in 2018 in the Dominican Republic and in 2019 in Barbados.
The process was, however, suspended in October of the same year following the extradition to the United States of businessman Alex Saab, accused of money laundering and being a front man for the president. Maduro. They had briefly resumed, but in November 2022, they were broken again after the Maduro government conditioned the dialogue on the disbursement of three billion dollars of Venezuelan funds frozen abroad and administered by the United Nations.
Pro-government negotiators had also demanded an end to financial sanctions imposed by the United States – including a recently relaxed oil embargo – and the European Union, while the opposition demanded strong guarantees for the presidential election of 2024.
Ineligibility
Experts say talks in Barbados could result in a deal in which, in exchange for sanctions relief, next Sunday’s opposition primaries will be guaranteed, an electoral calendar for 2024 established, political prisoners released and the ineligibility pronounced against opponents reviewed.
“It is unlikely that the issue of ineligibilities will be resolved, but the Maduro government could leave the door open to decide on this in the future, probably noting that ineligible people can appeal the measure to the Supreme Court,” explains to AFP Mariano de Alba from the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank.
The opposition is demanding the eligibility of all its candidates in the presidential election which will see President Maduro seek a new mandate. Maria Corina Machado, favorite in Sunday’s vote, is one of those condemned to ineligibility. The United States has expressed its willingness to gradually lift sanctions imposed on the country if agreements are reached for “free and fair” elections.
AFP
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