Maduro announces that talks with the United States will resume this week

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Monday that direct talks with the United States government will resume on Wednesday, aimed at normalizing relations between the two countries.

“I want to overcome this zero-sum conflict, of confrontation, brutal and sterile with them, with the North. It is up to them to comply. I have received the proposal for two consecutive months from the US government to reestablish talks and direct dialogue, and after thinking about it I have accepted,” said Maduro on his television program “Con Maduro +.”

Just weeks before presidential elections in the South American country, Maduro, who is seeking re-election, said he agreed to resume talks to ensure that the US complies with the agreements signed with the mediation of Qatar.

Direct negotiations initiated last year led to the exchange of a group of Americans detained in Venezuela for Alex Saab, a close associate of Maduro who was being prosecuted in the US for money laundering.

In April, the Venezuelan government accused the US of failing to comply with two memoranda of understanding signed with representatives of President Joe Biden’s administration, one on immigration matters and another on political and diplomatic aspects, aimed at normalizing relations between the two countries.

At the time, Jorge Rodríguez, president of the parliament with a pro-government majority and head of the government’s negotiating delegation who, according to Maduro this week, will lead the government delegation to the talks, showed photographs in which he can be seen together with Brian Nichols, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, and the signed documents.

Considering that the Venezuelan government failed to comply with the commitments on electoral guarantees assumed with the opposition in Barbados, the United States decided revoke a license which authorized oil and gas transactions with Venezuela.

The US acknowledged that Maduro’s government complied with “certain aspects” of the agreements signed in Barbados, including the establishment of an electoral calendar and the invitation to electoral observation missions, but questioned the blocking of opposition candidates.

The Democratic Unitary Platform led by María Corina Machado, winner of the presidential primary but disqualified from holding public office, has denounced that the government has not complied with the agreements, including respect for each political actor’s right to choose their candidate.

In May, Venezuela’s electoral authority rendered ineffective the invitation to the European Union Election Observation Mission for the presidential elections of 28 July, despite the fact that it was contemplated in the agreements.

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