Maduro resumes dialogue with opposition and will restart negotiations this Friday

Nicolas Maduro and the opposition have resumed dialogues and will resume negotiations on the crisis in Venezuela this Friday, the 25th, after 15 months of interruptions that oxygenate chavismo. However, the agenda remains unchanged, the opposition maintains the desire to ask for a timetable for “free” presidential elections, scheduled for 2024, while the ruler demands the suspension of the sanctions that the United States imposed on the former oil power. The resumption of the dialogue was announced on Wednesday, 23, by the Colombian president, Gustavo Petroand should last until Saturday, 26. According to sources linked to the negotiations, Mexico City will once again be the venue for the discussions, as it happened in August 2021. Also according to the same source, the delegations will arrive in the Mexican capital on Friday and will have an “afternoon working session”.

On Saturday, they plan to sign a first agreement on social aspects, but there is still no consensus on key issues, such as the next elections and their conditions. Representatives of Maduro and the opposition, Jorge Rodríguez and Gerardo Blyde, respectively, have yet to comment on the resumption of contacts in Mexico. Yesterday on Twitter, however, the advisory of opposition leader Juan Guaidó asked to wait for confirmation of the meeting by official sources and not to speculate about the resumption of dialogue. Petro, Colombia’s first left-wing president, expressed his willingness to support contacts between both parties. Since taking power on August 7, the two countries have resumed diplomatic relations, broken since 2019, due to differences between the then president of Colombia, Iván Duque (2018-2022), and Maduro.