Members of Venezuela’s opposition sat down with the government for talks aimed at defusing the nation’s political crisis as embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro seeks to fend off a campaign seeking his removal.
Maduro on Sunday night began the talks at a museum in western Caracas, held in the presence of mediators from the Vatican and former presidents of Spain, Panama and the Dominican Republic.
The talks are mired in distrust. Many of the president’s foes fear they could be a stalling tactic designed to ease pressure on the unpopular socialist leader, who many Venezuelans blame for triple-digit inflation and widespread food and medicine shortages.
Fifteen parties belonging to the Democratic Unity opposition alliance boycotted the talks, saying they were not prepared to sit across from the government until it released several jailed opposition activists and reversed its decision to cancel a constitutionally allowed recall referendum against Maduro.
“For an eventual dialogue to take place it has to be very clear from the outset that the aim is agreeing on the terms of a democratic transition in the remainder of 2016,” the parties said in a statement.
The talks come as the opposition is stepping up its campaign seeking to force Maduro from office.
Last week it rallied tens of thousands of supporters across the country and another protest has been called for Thursday, during which the opposition is vowing to march to the presidential palace.
Government foes have not been allowed to get close to the palace since the 2002 coup that briefly toppled former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the late leader who installed the socialist administration.
The opposition-controlled congress has begun a “political trial” against Maduro accusing him of neglecting his duties, although it is a largely symbolic gesture since the body does not have the power to remove a president under Venezuela’s constitution.
Although he has threatened to arrest legislators if they go ahead with the trial, Maduro on Sunday night said that he has an “absolute commitment” to holding a dialogue with the opposition.
“We’re giving a chance to disarm the hatred, the intolerance, and open the door to love among the Venezuelans,” he said in televised remarks from the museum.
Previous attempts have been made at having a dialogue between the opposition and the government, such as talks that followed a wave of deadly unrest in 2014.
Those sessions calmed the streets, but failed to produce any meaningful progress on key issues dividing Venezuelans.
Vatican envoy to the talks, Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, said the start of the latest round of talks is “very positive.”
He urged both sides to make concessions in order for the talks not to falter like the previous attempts.
“At the start of this journey, I ask you in the name of Pope Francis that each side agrees to some concrete gestures to give credibility to this process,” said Celli, who is president of the pope’s council for social communications. “The country is waiting for authentic signals to comprehend that dialogue is a reality.”
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was