The United States, 19 other countries and the European Union urged on Wednesday to resume the dialogue initiated in Mexico between the government of Nicolás Maduro and the opposition of Venezuela with a view to “restoring democracy” in the South American country.
During a high-level coordination meeting on Venezuela, held on Tuesday 15, the 20 countries and the EU discussed “the importance of urgently resuming negotiations in Mexico and that they are inclusive and in good faith,” the US State Department said in a statement.
Maduro’s government, re-elected three years ago until 2025 in controversial elections, and Venezuela’s Unitary Platform, which groups the Venezuelan opposition, began talks in Mexico City on Aug. 13 to end the country’s acute political and economic crisis, according to a Memorandum of Understanding.
But the talks, under the auspices of Norway, were suspended in October by Venezuela’s government as a rejection of the extradition to the United States of Alex Saab, accused of being Maduro’s front man and who, according to court documents revealed Wednesday, was a DEA informant in 2018.
For you to understand better: Talks begin in Mexico to find a way out of the political crisis in Venezuela
At Tuesday’s meeting, participants stressed the importance of a dialogue framework “to enable credible, inclusive and transparent legislative and presidential elections as soon as possible, no more than 2024,” according to the State Department.
They also declared their readiness to “review sanctions policies if considerable progress is made in the framework of these negotiations.”
The end of international sanctions on Caracas, which close financing channels to the government, is one of the main demands of the Maduro camp.
At the high-level meeting, participants also stressed “the need to reach agreement on an independent and impartial electoral management body”.
And they insisted on the necessary conditions for democratic institutions: “free and fair” elections, “immediate and unconditional” release of all those arbitrarily detained, independence of the judiciary, right to political participation and freedom of expression, and an end to human rights violations.
The State Department said “the following partners participated in this meeting”: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Panama, Paraguay, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
At the OAS, “the root of the crisis”
The United States reiterated its call to quickly resume the “Venezuelan dialogue process” during a virtual session of the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS), convened to analyze Venezuelan migration in the region.
Venezuela, ruled by Maduro since 2013, is experiencing a social and economic debacle that has forced the departure of more than 6 million people from the country in recent years, according to the UN.
“Maduro, the economic mismanagement of the regime and political repression are the root causes of this humanitarian crisis,” said U.S. Representative to the OAS Bradley Freden.
American countries must provide assistance to Venezuelan migrants and refugees, but at the same time, “address the root of the crisis.”
“We must support the efforts of the Venezuelan people for the peaceful restoration of democracy through free and fair elections, achieved through a negotiated process led by Venezuela,” Freden said.
Colombia, which received nearly a third of all Venezuelan migration, strongly called on the region to “support the restoration of democracy in Venezuela.”
“There will be no solution to the evils that the region is experiencing due to this migration if there is no free presidential election, hopefully soon, in Venezuela with the accompaniment of the international community,” said the vice president and foreign minister of Colombia, Marta Lucía Ramírez.
Read also: Venezuela removes 6 zeros from its currency and the sovereign bolivar becomes a digital bolivar
Uruguay’s ambassador to the OAS, Washington Abdala, agreed: “The generator of this cancer is the dictatorship,” he said, and called on the entire continent to work “in coincidence” to help overcome the “breakdown of the rule of law” in Venezuela.
“As long as a dictatorship continues to usurp power in Venezuela there will be no power capable of containing Venezuelans, warned Venezuelan representative Gustavo Tarre, delegate of opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who the OAS recognizes as the only legitimate authority for considering Maduro’s re-election in 2018 irregular.
The Secretary OAS General Luis Almagro, a harsh critic of Maduro, did not refer to the talks in Mexico, but said that if the situation in Venezuela is prolonged, 7 million Venezuelan refugees will be reached by 2022.
And, like many countries during the session, he praised as “historic” the Temporary Protection Statute implemented by Colombia to regularize and integrate the more than 1.8 million Venezuelans who arrived in the country.
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