ABBEY MAKOE
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has hailed the latest round of talks between his government and a body of several opposition parties that have signed up to participate in the national elections scheduled for November 21, thus, giving the process the much-needed legitimacy.
The creation of consultation mechanisms to be included in the negotiation process that seeks to bring about unity and peaceful co-existence among all the people of Venezuela is regarded as a positive outlet towards ending strife and tension that broke out after the last elections in 2018.
Negotiations between the Marxist Bolivarian Government of President Maduro and a body that represents the majority of opposition parties known as Unitary Platform have been taking place periodically in the neighbouring Mexico City for several months.
A joint communique, released by the spokesperson of the Norwegian facilitating team, Dag Nylander, revealed that the parties agreed to immediately carry out “several sessions of consultations with various political and social actors – national and international – so that an efficient mechanism for consultation and participation can be set up as soon as possible in an inclusive way”.
President Maduro congratulated the parties for the agreements reached. He referred to the talks as “dialogue for prosperity”. He added: “Venezuela wants dialogue, and Venezuelans can overcome our differences and recover our economy only through dialogue.”
Ongoing talks between the government and the Venezuelan Unitary Platform of opposition parties have reaffirmed a collective willingness by all involved – in their capacity as the true representatives of the people of Venezuela – “to seek a peaceful, definitive and mutually accepted resolution”.
The European Union (EU), which, together with the US, has unleashed punitive economic sanctions against Caracas, had indicated a willingness to reassess their strategy when they announced that the powerful bloc would be sending an electoral observer mission to Venezuela by the end of October.
The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, appointed envoy Isabel Santos as the head of the observation mission.
President Maduro had also launched a much-publicised “Back to the Homeland Plan”, a plan aimed at wooing back Venezuelan immigrants – mostly economic migrants – from neighbouring countries. The plans seem to have been influenced and accelerated by the recent xenophobic attacks on Venezuelan migrants living in neighbouring Chile.
Speaking on national State television last week, President Maduro said: “To my brothers, I hold out my hands to you, and I tell you: Come back to the homeland! We will wait for you, with love. We will protect and support you.”
A joint statement by all the participants in the Mexico City talks said the delegates came closer to agreeing on solutions to the “challenges in social, economic and political matters”. The agreement also establishes the guidelines for future negotiations, “among which are political rights, guarantees and a timetable for elections, as well as the lifting of the so-called sanctions”.
The agenda further included the respect for the Constitutional Rule of Law, political and social co-existence, protection of the economy and guarantees of the verification of what has been agreed”.
Venezuela’s economy has been on its knees over several years since the imposition of the US-EU sanctions. As World Food Day approaches in a fortnight – on October 16 and followed by World Poverty Day on October 17, Venezuelan authorities have been ramping up global awareness of their plight around the UN activities.
At the recent UN Food Systems Summit in New York, Venezuelan Minister of Food, Carlos Leal Telleria, revealed a fall of more than 83.7% of food imports, the decrease in the availability of proteins, and the harmful sanctions against a programme of the Local Supply and Production Committees, which supplies seven million families monthly.
He elaborated: “In addition, access to raw materials, finished products and inputs for agricultural activity is prevented, and national and international suppliers who agree to negotiate with our country have been sanctioned.” He cautioned: “Under no circumstances should peoples be deprived of their own means of subsistence and development.”
For survival, the Maduro administration has created a master plan better-known as Plan de la Patria, a comprehensive management project of the government, which is in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s).
Through Plan de la Patria, “the participation of the sectors linked to productive activity is promoted from a viable and sustainable scheme, through permanent dialogue with the people, whose premise has been the defence of food as a fundamental human right,” Minister Telleria said at the Food Systems Summit.
Although there is growing evidence that the upcoming November 21 elections will be legitimate, the prominent opposition leader from the state of Vargas, Juan Guaido, is yet to publicly declare if he is going to take part in the polls.
Guaido (38) is the darling of the Americans and the Europeans in their quest to see President Maduro out of power. After the disputed 2018 elections during which President Maduro was re-elected, Guaido declared himself the rightful president of Venezuela, the EU, Britain and the US endorsed his declaration and imposed punitive sanctions on the Maduro administration. At the beginning of this year, the EU announced in a statement that it no longer considered Guaido as the interim president of Venezuela, thus downgrading his status.
It remains unclear, too, if Washington will dispatch an election observer mission to Venezuela, a step that might compel the US to favourably readjust its foreign policy stance towards Caracas should the elections be declared free and fair despite their preference Guaido failing to unseat the Russian-backed President Maduro again.
Makoe is a Freelance Diplomatic Writer.
Sunday Independent