Venezuela: resumption of dialogue between the government and the opposition

Published on : 09/03/2021 – 10:21

Venezuelan power and opposition meet, Friday, September 3 in Mexico, for new negotiations. The two parties will try to break the political deadlock that has been going on for months in Venezuela, ahead of the regional elections scheduled for November 21.

On the one hand, the opposition, headed by Juan Guaido, who wants to achieve an electoral calendar with institutional guarantees. On the other, the power in place, which seeks to obtain a lifting of international sanctions following the re-election of Nicolas Maduro to the presidency.

After preliminary talks in mid-August, the goal of these Norwegian-sponsored negotiations, which follow the failed talks in Barbados in 2019 and the Dominican Republic in 2018, is to end the political and economic crisis. acute that undermines the country.

Three years of election boycott

The Venezuelan opposition has decided to break with three years of boycott and calls for abstention. The Democratic Union Table (Mesa de la Unidad Democratica, MUD), which brings together the main opposition parties, announced at a press conference in Caracas on Tuesday, August 31, its participation in the elections of mayors and governors scheduled for November 21, while saying certain “that these elections will be neither fair nor conventional”.

“Our priority is electoral,” said an opposition source. “The dictatorship has imposed serious obstacles that endanger the expression of change by the Venezuelan people. We know that we are embarking on a path of sand, of mud with scorpions, but this is the only way to go. ‘arrive at an election [présidentielle] democratic, “another opposition source told Thursday.

The opposition boycotted the 2018 presidential election, after which President Nicolas Maduro was re-elected, as well as the 2020 legislative elections, losing Parliament, the only power it had controlled since 2015. It accuses power of fraud.

Washington as well as about fifty countries recognize as legitimate head of state Juan Guaido, opposition leader who proclaimed himself president in 2019 when he headed Parliament.

Maduro wants sanctions lifted

President Maduro is seeking international recognition and a partial, if not total, lifting of sanctions in exchange for concessions to the opposition. He hopes in particular to turn the page Donald Trump to negotiate with President Joe Biden, deemed more flexible than his predecessor in the White House.

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But, like the arrest followed by the release of an opponent in recent weeks, Maduro is blowing hot and cold. “Now that they [les opposants] want to go to the elections, remember that you called for the invasion of the country and that you are responsible for the economic sanctions. Now, let them find a way to lift them, “he said on Wednesday.

The government regularly denounces international sanctions, which include an oil embargo, as being at the origin of the serious economic crisis that the country is going through, whose GDP has fallen by 80% since 2014.

With AFP