Officialism will call on all sectors to resume dialogue in Venezuela

Caracas, 15 Mar The Government of Venezuela will convene an “intensive round of consultations and meetings with all the actors of the Venezuelan opposition” to learn “the real expectations of the population” around the dialogue, announced Tuesday the President of Parliament, Jorge Rodríguez, without clarifying whether or not they would resume the table installed in Mexico last August. “Now, a process of meetings begins that we are going to request from all the actors that I mentioned previously and after that round of talks we will be able to say what format we have all built for that dialogue,” Rodríguez explained at a press conference from the National Assembly (Parliament/AN). The also head of the negotiating delegation appointed by President Nicolás Maduro assured that the circumstances of a dialogue today “are different”, because, “fortunately, Venezuela's living conditions at this time are conditions of absolute peace throughout the territory”. “Let's say, the quality of dialogue is very different because it is a dialogue in conditions of peace that would allow us to see the future for the society we want to build,” the official said. He pointed out that for these talks they will convene both sectors of the opposition, as well as “economic and social actors”, and mentioned that they will call Gerardo Blyde, head of the delegation of the Unitary Platform in the dialogue in Mexico, the board of the Fedecámaras business employers, workers and society in general. Thus, Rodríguez pointed out that this process begins on Tuesday and that it takes into account the request of the national president to “reformat” the process based on three factors: “inclusive dialogue”, “attention to the current political picture” and the “quality of dialogue” with a “country that is at peace”. With this, the Special Commission for Dialogue responds to what Maduro said on March 7, following the visit of an official US delegation to Venezuela, when it announced its decision to “reactivate the national dialogue process with great force” with “all political actors” in the country, although it did not detail whether that resolution implied to resume the negotiating table suspended last October. “We have decided at this meeting to reactivate with great force the process of national dialogue with all the political, social, economic, religious and cultural factors of the country,” Maduro said at the time after holding a meeting with his vice-presidents, the chancellor and the General Staff at the Miraflores Palace, headquarters of the Executive. Regarding the negotiation with the opposition that Mexico had as its headquarters, the president commented that “he received a tremendous blow”, but said that they are “asking for dialogue.” The Venezuelan government and the opposition agreed to the negotiating table in Mexico in August 2021, but it has been suspended since October, following the extradition to the United States of Colombian businessman Álex Saab, alleged Maduro's foreman. CHIEF gcs/sb/dmt (photo) (video)