The heads of the delegations of the ruling party and the opposition met this Friday, in France, in a meeting sponsored by the French president, Emmanuel Macron. Jorge Rodríguez maintained Chavismo’s demand for the withdrawal of sanctions to advance with the negotiations, while on the other side, Gerardo Blyde highlighted that there are “non-agreeable” elements in terms of human rights violations
The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, stated, on the afternoon of this Friday, November 11, that the ways are opened for the return of the Negotiation and Dialogue Table between the Venezuelan government and the opposition (United Platform).
“The people who are directly at the table, the two Venezuelan parties, what they expressed is that they are on their way to reaching agreements in Mexico. We are not talking about specific dates. We do not handle schedules », he expressed at the end of a meeting, within the framework of the Paris Forum, which seeks to materialize a new round of dialogue.
The government and the opposition have not returned to dialogue since October 2021, when the administration of Nicolás Maduro suspended the process.
“We have met in a round table with President Emmanuel Macron, the President of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, with the man who represents the Venezuelan opposition, Gerardo Blyde, with the person who represented the Government of Venezuela, Jorge Rodríguez, with the Prime Minister of Norway and with me. Some criteria were expressed, among those, recognizing the Venezuelan political conflict has not brought a violent outcome to its interior as in other countries we have had to live, ”said Petro.
For the Colombian president, “there is progress, a development of the negotiating tables in Mexico that this group supports.”
Within the framework of the talks for dialogue in Venezuela, Petro said that he asked for an end to the political conflict, “in terms of Venezuela’s entry into the Inter-American Human Rights System, of a general amnesty, of a general unblocking of the Venezuelan economy, of elections that by the year 2024 can give guarantees to all political forces and where the expression is that of the Venezuelan people who decide.
For the Colombian president, in Paris, there was “a positive acclimatization towards the achievement of political and social agreements.”
In this process for dialogue, he stressed that Venezuela’s funds abroad must be unblocked, even partially. “Those funds go towards social spending, vulnerable populations that have suffered in terms of health, nutrition, drinking water, security and education.” Petro specified that he proposed “the general unlocking” of these funds.
Likewise, Petro said that Argentina and Colombia are willing to support, but without intervening, an agreement that must be between Venezuelans.
“I promised to improve the stay of the Venezuelan people in Colombia and proposed that the release be part of a humanitarian measure in favor of millions of people who suffered sexual and child slavery, and were led to violence in other countries,” he said.
The Unitary Platform that groups the Venezuelan opposition had asked Gustavo Petro, days after his inauguration in August, to maintain the protected status that the previous government of Iván Duque had provided to the diaspora in that country.
The President of Colombia also asserted that an agreement in Mexico has to do with guarantees for all those who participate in the 2024 elections.
“There, the position of the Venezuelan government was even that if there were those guarantees for the current opposition, how could there be for candidates who have millions of dollars in US justice to be killed? Which, I think, should stop, because that’s not how elections are held,” Petro said, referring to the $15 million reward offered by the United States for the capture of Nicolás Maduro since 2020.
Mixed positions
The heads of the delegations participating in the dialogue in Mexico, Gerardo Blyde on the opposition side and the president of the National Assembly elected in 2020, Jorge Rodríguez, on the Chavismo side. In their statements after the meeting, the only thing they agreed on is that there is no agreement yet.
On the one hand, Blyde insisted that the meeting served to prepare the ground and work towards the reestablishment of the dialogue table in Mexico, reminding that “it was not the opposition that withdrew”, since Chavismo made the decision to suspend talks after Colombian businessman Alex Saab was deported to the United States in October 2021.
The representative of the Venezuelan opposition stressed that, despite the fact that the approaches were positive, there is still no timetable for resuming the talks. “We don’t have a date, but hopefully it will be as soon as possible,” he said.
Regarding the amnesty proposal mentioned by Petro, Blyde maintained that it was only an idea that the Colombian president floated, about which he did not give further details, but stressed that they are not willing to reach agreements that pardon human rights violations. “There are limitations because there are human rights violations that cannot be agreed upon,” he commented.
On the other front, Rodríguez maintained the usual Chavismo narrative about the negotiations by stressing that there is no way to advance the talks without relaxing the international community’s sanctions.
“We are willing and ready for a great social and political agreement, but progress must also be made on the path of lifting each and every one of the sanctions,” he declared.
The Chavismo official reported that during the meeting “very difficult discussions” took place to resume the process, which on the part of Chavismo focuses mainly on lifting the sanctions.
“We insist that there can be no dialogue with a revolver to the head and Venezuela has 762 revolvers to its head, which are illegal sanctions,” he reiterated.
Dialogue meeting
The meeting to promote the return to dialogue took place in Paris, this Friday, November 11, under the auspices of the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, of the heads of the delegations participating in the dialogue in Mexico.
“I am aware of the role you have played personally, I have been able to verify it in recent years, and I take this opportunity to thank you solemnly. We will do our best to accompany this initiative, this work in favor of peace and I hope that tomorrow we will do this work together,” said the French president at the Elysée, addressing Fernández.
Both Gerardo Blyde and Jorge Rodríguez arrived in Paris, in the context of the Forum for Peace, accompanied by the French ambassador to Venezuela, Romain Nadal.
Starting to work with the Venezuelan delegation in the Paris forum for peace. #ParisPeaceForum @ParisPeaceForum @JustinVaisse @MicheleRamis @EmbaFrance @CaroitEleonore @francediplo_ES pic.twitter.com/QZIaBia95E
— Romain Nadal (@NadalDiplo) November 11, 2022
According to the portal Europe Pressthe Elysée indicates that what France is looking for is to generate a dynamic that allows dialogue to be resumed in Mexico, so the meeting of Macron and Maduro at COP27 enters into context in order to motivate those discussions where the Venezuelan president maintained that Paris “It has to play a decisive role.”
*Also read: Gerardo Blyde will go for the Unitary Platform to the Forum for Peace in Paris
However, sources of Presidency of France clarify that their position remains the same, that is, of ignorance of Maduro; but they emphasize Macron’s speech of seeking dialogue and that is why they touch that key so that the talks are promoted after more than a year suspended after the extradition of Alex Saab.
“It is in this context that the president tries to support the resumption of a dialogue so that there are political guarantees in the shortest possible time that will then lead to fair and transparent elections,” said a spokesman.
That also serves to establish a position in the face of the complaints issued in days past by the alliance. Forum Madridwhich demanded that the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, offer a public apology “to the victims of the Venezuelan tyranny” for having greeted “friendly” President Nicolás Maduro at COP27.
Jorge Rodriguez, whom Ripe he ordered “talking about peace” in France, insisted on his social networks on the importance of dialogue to advance concrete solutions; Like him, he reiterated the request that the “illegal” sanctions imposed by other countries on Venezuela be lifted.
As a representative of the delegation of the Bolivarian Government of Venezuela before the dialogue, I participated in the V Paris Forum for Peace, France. We are convinced that the path of Vzla is dialogue, the suspension of all illegal sanctions and respect for the Constitution. pic.twitter.com/zgkK0Sutj3
– Jorge Rodríguez (@jorgerpsuv) November 11, 2022
For the Venezuelan political scientist Luis Salamanca, this “opening” towards Venezuela by the US and France has as its context the energy crisis arising from the war in Ukraine and recovering, with some concern, the South American nation as a supplier of fuel.
“There is like the need to recover that, which takes a lot of time and money. I imagine that Western countries are thinking strategically, with the intention of preparing the future in case of an energy crisis. There is a fear that the Venezuelan situation will get out of control”, estimated Salamanca for RFI.
In his opinion, both parties have little to offer each other, although he does believe that there is a very small margin to negotiate, such as not disqualifying a unitary candidate and respecting an opposition card, but also giving up points that could benefit both sectors.
“The opposition has to play to certain minimums. The rest of the conditions, the government is not going to grant them, such as having a more or less important freedom of expression, varied information, with media outlets that can speak without the danger of being closed. This year they closed more than 100 stations in Venezuela”, he points out.
With additional information from Swiss Info /
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