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Envoys from the Venezuelan government and the opposition met this Friday in Paris without being able to unlock the expected return to negotiations in Mexico despite international pressure, led by French President Emmanuel Macron.
“We are making progress, we are doing well. We think that this event [del Foro de París sobre la Paz] has made it possible to help and accompany this effort to resume dialogue,” Jorge Rodríguez, the envoy of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, told AFP.
“Hopefully we can give you good news soon” about the resumption of negotiations, the opposition representative, Gerardo Blyde, told the press, assuring that there is “will on both sides.”
The fifth edition of the Paris Forum on Peace became the stage for discussions between the two parties, as requested by “Venezuelans and other Latin American countries,” its president, Pascal Lamy, told AFP.
“Negotiations between the regime and the opposition must resume as soon as possible in Mexico, starting with a humanitarian agreement and then — I hope — with political guarantees,” the French leader said the day before.
To try to encourage a return to negotiations, Macron, his Colombian counterparts, Gustavo Petro, and Argentina, Alberto Fernández, as well as the Norwegian Foreign Minister, Anniken Huitfeldt, held a meeting with both prior to their discussion.
The three presidents urged them to return to Mexico, to reach agreements in the humanitarian and political spheres, and expressed their willingness to accompany them in this process, the “only way” to resolve the “crisis,” according to a joint statement.
“This initiative aims to encourage Venezuelan political actors to agree on a way out of the crisis, with a view to free, democratic presidential elections and with international electoral observation in 2024,” they add.
The ruling party and the opposition began negotiations in Mexico in August 2021 after two failed initiatives. But Maduro froze them two months later for the extradition to the United States of Alex Saab, a businessman close to the government.
Rodríguez again denounced the “kidnapping” of Saab, which he described as a “diplomatic delegate” of Venezuela and the international sanctions imposed on Caracas, but assured that a social agreement with the opposition is “quite well defined.”
Rodríguez also pointed out, in statements offered to government television, that the reestablishment of negotiations with opponents is conditional on the lifting of sanctions on Venezuela.
“Venezuela has 762 revolvers to the head, 762 sanctions,” said the Maduro delegate when questioning the measures that affect the oil industry, the state airline Conviasa, as well as other operations.
“Every discussion event, every dialogue event, every negotiation event necessarily happens” because the sanctions “are lifted,” he reiterated.
