President Maduro hopes México City talks will help ease global sanctions while the opposition wants guarantees of free and fair regional elections.
By Argus
Sep 5, 2021
A top Venezuelan official says talks between the government and the opposition aimed at resolving the country’s longstanding political crisis have yielded “partial agreements”.
Parliament speaker Jorge Rodríguez, head of the government delegation, told reporters on Saturday the two sides were working towards agreements, but officials provided no information on the nature of the agreements and a source in the opposition delegation told AFP that “so far, nothing has been agreed”.
The opposition is hoping to use the talks being held in México City to secure guarantees of free and fair regional elections to be held in the fall, while the government of Nicolás Maduro wants to ease international sanctions on his economically crippled nation.
The talks, mediated by Norway and hosted by México, aim to resolve the crisis that has marked Maduro’s eight-year rule.
The negotiations have a seven-point agenda, including easing sanctions, political rights and electoral guarantees – but not the departure of Maduro, accused by the opposition of fraudulent reelection in 2018.
The government is “very attentive” to all the economic guarantees that have been “wrested, blocked, stolen, withdrawn from the people of Venezuela”, said Rodríguez, adding that Maduro seeks a partial if not total lifting of sanctions in exchange for concessions to the opposition.
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