Venezuela government to launch formal talks with opposition members

A significant story is unfolding on the international scene. Venezuela government to launch formal talks with opposition membersImage source, /Leonardo Fernandez ViloriaImage caption, Jorge Rodríguez, who is representing the government, has already held a meeting with opposition ex-lawmaker Dinorah FigueraByVanessa BuschschlüterLatin America online editorPublished1 hour agoVenezuela's interim government says it will start holding formal talks with some members of the opposition from 1 August. The announcement comes just over six months after US troops seized Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan leader at the time, in a dawn raid on the capital, Caracas, and took him to New York to face drug-trafficking charges. Former Vice-President Delcy Rodríguez, a Maduro loyalist, has been in power since then with the backing of the Trump administration, much to the frustration of the opposition, which had hoped Maduro's ouster would be followed by a change of government.

An opposition statement said the talks would lay down "a route map towards democracy". The plan for formal talks was announced almost simultaneously by a group of opposition politicians on the one hand, and Jorge Rodríguez, who heads the government-controlled National Assembly, on the other. Jorge Rodríguez, who is the brother of interim president Delcy Rodríguez, cited the devastation created by the recent twin earthquakes which struck the north of Venezuela on 24 June as the reason behind the talks.

The Details

At least 4,734 people are already confirmed to have died but the death toll keeps on rising as more bodies are found beneath the rubble. "Only through unity can we move forward with reconstruction and maintain peace," Jorge Rodríguez's brief statement said. The opposition statement was more detailed and expressly referred to the support the United States has lent since the quakes, which it said showed that "Venezuela is not alone".

Image source, MIGUEL GUTIERREZ/EPA/ShutterstockImage caption, Many buildings toppled and crumbled under the force of the twin quakesThe opposition group is made up of former lawmakers who were elected to the National Assembly in 2015, the last time opposition parties won a majority in the legislative body. National Assembly elections held since then have either been boycotted by the opposition or widely dismissed as neither free nor fair, as Maduro and his PSUV party tightened their grip on all branches of government. The opposition team will be led by Dinorah Figuera, who returned to Venezuela in June after almost eight years in exile.

Upon landing in Caracas, she told reporters that she had travelled to her home country "on invitation from the State Department" with the aim of pushing for the renewal of the National Electoral Council (CNE). The CNE has been dominated by staunch loyalists of the Maduro government for years.

The story has become one of the most prominent items on the global agenda.