Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro assured that if the participants in the International Conference to be held in Bogotá aspire to restart political negotiations with the opposition in Mexico, the final declaration must require the United States to deposit the frozen money abroad for the creation of a Social Care Fund, agreed in Mexico at the end of last year.
“Once they deposit, we go to Mexico again, a sine qua non requirement. If there is no compliance with the Mexico agreement, forget about that path,” Maduro said, addressing the representatives of the countries invited to the summit on Venezuela called by Colombian President Gustavo Petro and which begins this Tuesday.
“There is no way for us to return to Mexico if you do not comply,” he continued during his Monday program “Con Maduro +”, broadcast by Venezolana de Televisión, the state channel.
The delegation of the opposition Unitary Platform, which met with Petro over the weekend, hopes that tomorrow’s initiative will result in an “exhort” for a return to negotiations with the government in Mexico.
The ruling party and the opposition Unitary Platform signed an agreement in November to create a Fund of 3,000 million dollars for Social Care with resources frozen abroad that will be administered by the United Nations (UN) to attend to the most urgent needs. urgent in Venezuela, but the funds have not been released.
The coordinator of the Delegation of the Unitary Platform for the negotiation in Mexico, Gerardo Blyde, has denied that they are breaching the agreement as stated by the government and has insisted that the agreement does not establish periods for the release of resources.
During an intervention in Maduro’s program, Jorge Rodríguez, head of the ruling party delegation in the negotiations in Mexico, accused James Story, US ambassador to Venezuela, of having prohibited the establishment of the Social Fund.
Rodríguez, also president of the National Assembly, with an official majority, insisted that the return to Mexico requires the lifting of sanctions; the return of money frozen abroad; the cessation of what he described as “attack policies” through the International Criminal Court and the freedom of Colombian businessman Alex Saab, who is facing trial in Miami.
“That the policies of attacks through adventures in US courts or through the ICC stop because it directly affects our most important leaders,” Rodríguez said.
Maduro also said he had no doubts that Story financed the arrival in Colombia of the opposition leader, Juan Guaidó, who on Monday announced that he had crossed the border and that he will request meetings with the participants in Tuesday’s conference.
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