CARACAS, July 8, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Dialogue between Venezuela’s opposition
and President Nicolas Maduro’s government will resume in Barbados, self-
declared interim president Juan Guaido said on Sunday, after previous
negotiations in Norway petered out.
“In response to the mediation of the Kingdom of Norway (the opposition)
will attend a meeting with representatives of the usurper regime in Barbados,
to establish a negotiation on the end of the dictatorship,” Guaido said in a
statement, without giving a date for talks to resume.
Maduro’s government suggested talks would resume this week.
Delegations representing the Venezuelan rivals met face-to-face in Oslo for
the first time in late May, in a process begun two weeks earlier under
Norwegian auspices to find a solution to the South American country’s
economic and political crises.
Oil-rich Venezuela has been ravaged by five years of recession marked by
shortages of food, medicine and other basic necessities.
It plunged deeper into political turmoil in January when National Assembly
speaker Guaido declared himself acting president in a direct challenge to
Maduro’s authority.
On Sunday Guaido also announced that he would push for Caracas to rejoin
the Inter-American Defense Treaty, which Venezuela left in 2012.
Some opposition lawmakers believe the treaty, from which Bolivia, Ecuador
and Nicaragua have also withdrawn, could legally allow foreign military
intervention to overthrow Maduro.
“We have the legitimate right to build the international capacities and
alliances necessary to protect and defend our people and our sovereignty,”
Guaido said on Twitter.
Guaido is recognized by the United States and more than 50 other countries
but has been unable to dislodge Maduro, who is backed by Cuba, Russia and
China.
Last Tuesday Guaido had said there were no plans to re-open talks with the
“murderous dictatorship” of Maduro, following the death of an officer in
custody over an alleged coup plot.
The suspicious death of retired naval officer Rafael Acosta Arevalo sparked
international condemnation.
Guaido said at that time, though, that if fresh talks aimed at
“facilitating the cessation of the usurpation” of Maduro were announced, “we
will officially communicate.”
— ‘To move forward’ —
In a tweet, Maduro’s Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez implicitly
corroborated Guaido’s announcement by reproducing a Norwegian Foreign
Ministry statement.
“The two parties will meet this week in Barbados to move forward in the
search for a negotiated and constitutional solution,” the statement said.
The Barbados talks will be the third round since May.
Guaido wants them to lead towards Maduro’s departure from the presidency he
has held since 2013, to a transitional government, and then “free elections
with international observers.”
Some in the opposition criticize dialogue as a way for Maduro to “buy
time,” but Guaido responds it is a means to “put an end to the suffering of
Venezuelans.”
Political scientist Jesus Castillo-Molleda told AFP “the opposition cannot
defeat the government, neither alone nor with the help of the United States
government.”
This means it has to look for other ways to reach agreements in favor of
elections, the analyst said.
Maduro has repeatedly said that the dialogue “will continue” with the
opposition, “for peace in Venezuela.”
During a parade last Friday celebrating the country’s independence, Maduro
said there would be “good news” this week about the negotiations.
Guaido calls Maduro a “usurper” for staying in power after a 2018 election
widely dismissed as a sham.
Venezuela is suffering from hyperinflation in an economic crisis that has
forced millions to flee. The UN estimates that more than seven million
Venezuelans are in need of urgent humanitarian aid.
But Maduro has withstood a US-led pressure campaign that includes sanctions
on Venezuela’s crucial oil exports.
He has accused the opposition of working on behalf of Washington and called
them “putchist.”