Diplomatic offensive in Paris to reach agreement between government and opposition in Venezuela | International

The Venezuela crisis is once again a priority for the international community A year after Nicolás Maduro suspended his participation At the negotiating table in Mexico. The presidents of France, Colombia, Argentina and Norway’s foreign minister met in Paris this Friday with Maduro’s most confidant Jorge Rodríguez and opposition leader Gerardo Plait. To be held before 2024 – on the table is the possibility of May that year, according to sources familiar with the talks. The idea is to organize verifiable elections, overseen by neutral institutions, in which opponents of Chavismo have a real chance of coming to power.

The situation in Venezuela seemed stuck, with no signs of resolution. However, events have accelerated in recent months. The invasion of Ukraine led the United States to approach Maduro in search of an energy alternative to Russia. Gustavo Pedro’s victory in Colombia has given Venezuela a willing partner in seeking an agreed solution to the crisis. The path to isolating Maduro, which Washington pushed three years ago with the appointment of an alternative president like Juan Quito, failed and did not yield results. The arrival of new progressive governments in the region, the immediate accession of Gabriel Boric in Chile and Lula da Silva in Brazil, have opened up new channels of integration. Also, this week, Frenchman Emmanuel Macron urged Maduro to act. It was a good idea to fix the election date and allow clean elections.

Macron suddenly plays an unexpected role in resolving the conflict. The French president took advantage of Pedro and Argentina’s Alberto Fernández joining forces with Chavismo and the opposition to attend the annual Paris Peace Forum to commemorate the end of World War I. Both parties’ return to Mexico is imminent and could be announced as early as Saturday, according to sources familiar with the discussions. Spain has no role as mediator. The relationship between President Pedro Sánchez and Maduro is not the best. Even though he has lost all enthusiasm over the past year and no faith in him, the Venezuelan has not forgotten that Sanchez supported Quito in his day. Maduro has vetoed Sánchez as an assistant in peace talks with ELN guerrillas. (National Liberation Army) is going to start soon in Colombia. It seems difficult to repair the relationship. Although it may not be worth the effort. The foreign minister, José Manuel Álvarez, met with Rodríguez and Plyde separately and in a three-person meeting, so Spain was not resigned to having any role.

Petro has filled that void. He has devoted all his energies to leading Venezuela toward “liberal democracy,” as he told Maduro in Caracas. He has called for a return to the Inter-American Human Rights System, where judicial decisions by courts co-opted by Chavismo can be revised, according to the UN. In recent weeks, Pedro has balanced the situation in Venezuela with exposure without criticism. At the end of the meeting in Paris and leaving, Pedro did the stunt again. He affirmed that the return of the parties to the negotiating table is imminent and that a series of agreements must be reached to end the political and social drama Venezuela is experiencing. He said he told other parties that the US and European sanctions must be ended because they affect the Venezuelan people above all.

Then he entered into one of the most difficult problems. Pedro –This is one of the few issues on which he agrees with Guaidó– Believes it is necessary to implement a general amnesty for political prisoners who release their imprisoned opponents from prison, but guarantees Chavismo that they will not be prosecuted in court. It was a way to give him a way to prevent him from clinging to power forever. “I ask for an end to the political conflict, Venezuela’s entry into the human rights system, amnesty and the lifting of the general embargo on the economy,” Colombia’s president asked. His positions. He insisted that it should be an agreement between the Venezuelan people, with the ultimate goal of holding presidential elections, without outside interference. “They must guarantee all the powers that intervene there and the expression of the Venezuelan people will decide,” he added.

The President of Venezuela’s National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, eventually announced to EL PAÍS that Macron had been a great host. “It is going through very difficult discussions to reach an agreement that allows the resumption of negotiations in Mexico. We insist that there can be no dialogue with a revolver at the head, Venezuela has 762 revolvers, which are illegal sanctions, which are nothing more or less than torture against the social and economic system of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. .There needs to be progress in removing each of those barriers,” Rodriguez said. Although he did not provide a specific date, he waved goodbye, saying the dialogue would resume “soon.”

Opponent Blight offered his view of the meeting: “We are not the ones who woke up a year ago, we have repeatedly insisted on coming back and the conditions are met for it to happen. In Venezuela, the government has been overthrown and the democratic system has been dismantled. Sanctions are not a crime. As Pedro, Macron or Fernández is elected, we Venezuelans want to elect our president,” he concluded.

The return to Mexico seems like a few days. The international community is pressing harder now than ever. Maduro must decide what his place in history is. He replaced Hugo Chávez, tightened internal politics and isolated himself from the rest of the world. Now what? It has a voice and a role again on the international stage You have to choose between remaining static or simplifying the transition. He has the last word.

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