(Caracas) The Venezuelan government of President Nicolas Maduro and the opposition announced 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 two parties will meet again on Tuesday in Bridgetown, Barbados, according to a statement.
They will “resume the process of dialogue and negotiation, facilitated by Norway, with the aim of reaching a political settlement” of the crisis, they specify.
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 also demanded an end to financial sanctions imposed by the United States, including an oil embargo, and the European Union, while the opposition demanded solid guarantees in view of the 2024 presidential election.
Ineligibility
This announcement comes a few days before the opposition primaries which will be held on Sunday and whose favorite, Maria Corina Machado, is part of the list of people prohibited from holding public office.
The opposition is demanding the eligibility of all its candidates in the presidential election which will see President Maduro seek a new mandate.
The United States has expressed its willingness to gradually lift financial sanctions imposed on the country if agreements are reached for “free and fair” elections.
The opposition did not recognize the re-election of President Nicolas Maduro in 2018 in a vote widely considered fraudulent and not recognized by many countries including the United States and France.
The following year, Washington strengthened sanctions against Caracas first imposed in 2015 due to the brutal repression of anti-government protests.
In 2019, Washington, as well as part of the international community, recognized Juan Guaidó, leader of the opposition who had just proclaimed himself interim president.
The opposition ended this interim presidency in January, believing that it had not fulfilled its objectives of political change.
The resumption of negotiations between Maduro’s government and the opposition also coincides with the announcement by Washington at the beginning of October of the resumption, accepted by Caracas, of direct expulsions to Venezuela of illegal immigrants.
The Venezuelan government had indicated, for its part, in a press release, that the two countries had “concluded an agreement allowing the repatriation of Venezuelan citizens from the United States in an organized, safe and legal manner. »
According to the UN, more than seven million people have fled Venezuela since its economy collapsed. The country has seen its GDP contract by 80% in ten years.