CARACAS, July 12, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Venezuela’s government and opposition
have agreed to set up a platform for ongoing negotiations to resolve the
country’s simmering political crisis after three days of talks in Barbados,
mediator nation Norway said Thursday.
Representatives of President Nicolas Maduro and opposition leader Juan
Guaido met from Monday to Wednesday in the Caribbean island nation for
negotiations, which Maduro has hailed as successful.
The Barbados talks were an extension of the first round of negotiations in
Oslo in May, which ended with no concrete advances.
“After an intense day of work, we developed six points with the government
of Norway and the opposition,” Maduro said Thursday in a television and radio
interview, though he did not specify what the points were.
Earlier, Norway’s Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soreide said in a statement
that the two sides had established a negotiation table that will “work in a
continuous and efficient manner to reach an agreed-upon solution within the
framework of the Constitution.”
“It is foreseen that the parties will carry out consultations in order to
advance the negotiations,” the statement added.
Venezuelan government negotiator Hector Rodriguez said he anticipated a
“complex path,” but one that leads to an “agreement of democratic co-
existence” where each side recognizes the other.
Guaido representative Stalin Gonzalez said on Twitter that Venezuelans need
“answers and results,” and said his delegation would “make consultations
toward progress and putting an end to the suffering.”
Crisis-wracked Venezuela has been mired in a political impasse since
January when Guaido proclaimed himself acting president, quickly receiving
the support of more than 50 countries.
The oil-rich, cash-poor country has been in a deep recession for five
years. Shortages of food and medicine are frequent, and public services are
progressively failing.
Around a quarter of Venezuela’s 30-million-strong population are in need of
aid, according to the United Nations. Three million people have left the
country since the start of 2016.
Guaido and the opposition accused Maduro of having rigged the 2018 poll
that saw him re-elected, and they describe the socialist leader as a
“usurper.”
They want him to stand down so new elections can be held.
But Maduro’s right-hand man Diosdado Cabello on Wednesday ruled out early
elections.
“They say: the government’s going to Barbados because there are going to be
presidential elections in I don’t know how long and the candidates are X and
Y,” he told state television channel VTV.
“Here there are no presidential elections, here the president’s name is
Nicolas Maduro,” said Cabello, who heads the pro-regime Constituent Assembly
and is considered the country’s second most powerful politician.
Before the talks began on Monday, Guaido had said the opposition would
attend “to establish a negotiation on the end of the dictatorship.”
After they began, Maduro said he was “optimistic … we can find a path to
peace.”
The Norwegian minister urged both parties to show “utmost caution in their
comments and statements about the process.”
The Barbados talks almost did not take place as Guaido had said last week
that they would not resume following the suspicious death of an officer in
custody over an alleged coup plot.
Some in the opposition are opposed to negotiations, believing they may
reinvigorate Maduro, but Guaido urged them to have faith, insisting that
everything was designed to bring about an “end to the usurpation, a
transitional government and free elections.”