The government of Venezuela and its opposition are set to begin a new dialogue this week looking for a change in the South American nation’s prolonged political standoff.
By The Philadelphia Inquirer – Regina García Cano and Fabiola Sánchez
Aug 13, 2021
Months before COVID-19 spread around the world, representatives of President Nicolás Maduro and the Venezuelan opposition for weeks shuttled back and forth to Barbados to try to agree on a common path out of the South American nation’s prolonged political standoff. Mystery surrounded the discussions facilitated by Norwegian diplomats in the summer of 2019, but Venezuelans were hopeful for change.
The fragile process, however, fell apart when the administration of then-President Donald Trump announced sweeping new sanctions freezing all of the Venezuelan government’s assets in the U.S. Maduro’s allies would not return to the table. The opposition would go on to lose its National Assembly leadership in an election. Soon, the world’s attention shifted to the coronavirus pandemic.
Two years and a few days after the discussions in the Caribbean ended, both sides will meet Friday, this time in México, under very different circumstances, the only constant being that Maduro remains in power. The country’s crises have worsened, the opposition has weakened and fractured, the U.S.’s policy toward Venezuela remains unclear, and millions of people in the troubled country are more focused on surviving the pandemic than on politics.
Damaris Álvarez, a coordinator of a Venezuelan public music school, said her roughly $4 monthly salary is not enough to buy all the food her family needs. She added that she will follow the negotiations between the government and the opposition but insisted that her priority is “to resolve the day-to-day.”
Representatives of Maduro and the opposition, led by Juan Guaidó, will hold a first meeting in México City in which they are expected to define an agenda and schedule for the dialogue process to begin in earnest in September. The talks will again be guided by the Norwegian government.
Maduro last weekend said he will ask for the “lifting of all sanctions,” which have exacerbated the country’s punishing economic crisis, the “recognition of legitimate and constitutional authorities,” and that the opposition “renounce the violence.” Meanwhile, the opposition’s demands include an electoral schedule, a massive plan to import COVID-19 vaccines and the guarantee of transparent elections.
Former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles, who in the last year has confronted Guaidó, said the opposition should not limit discussions to political and electoral matters.
“I believe that it is very important that in México, economic and social issues are discussed that allow the alleviation of the crisis that the vast majority of the Venezuelan people are experiencing,” said Capriles, who believes the opposition should participate in the November gubernatorial and mayoral elections.
More than 96% of Venezuela’s population lives in poverty, amid low wages and high food prices resulting from the world’s worst inflation rate and irregular dollarization of the economy. The country’s political, social and economic crises, attributed to plummeting oil prices and two decades of government mismanagement, have continued to deepen with the pandemic.
…