Venezuelan Opposition to Join Vatican-Mediated Talks – LATH

Fuente Web

The Venezuelan opposition will take part in a dialogue with the government announced earlier this week by the Vatican special envoy to the Andean nation, the leader of the MUD coalition said on Thursday.

The MUD made a decision “to go on Sunday to tell the pope’s representative and the representatives of the government of the need to urgently resume the electoral agenda to resolve this crisis,” Jesus Torrealba said a day after two-time presidential candidate Henrique Capriles said the opposition would boycott the talks.

Torrealba said the MUD plans to raise the possibility of re-activating the presidential recall that was suspended last weekend after courts in five of Venezuela’s 23 states rejected the authenticity of signatures delivered to the CNE electoral council in May to launch the initiative.

Alternatively, he said, President Nicolas Maduro’s government and the MUD – which controls the National Assembly – could agree on a constitutional amendment authorizing early general elections.

Because the majority of Venezuelans want dialogue, the MUD will participate in the discussions under the auspices of the Union of South American Nations and the Vatican, Torrealba said.

Pope Francis’ envoy to Venezuela, Monsignor Emil Paul Tscherrig, announced Monday that the government and the MUD had agreed to meet for discussions accompanied by the former presidents of the Dominican Republic, Leonel Fernandez, and Panama, Martin Torrijos, and former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

The Vatican representative said the dialogue would begin Sunday on Isla Margarita, but the MUD says the inaugural session should take place in Caracas, “in view of public opinion, maintaining fluid and transparent communication with all sectors of the country.”

The opposition convened a special session of congress last Sunday after the CNE electoral council put on hold the second phase of gathering signatures to force a referendum on removing Maduro.

Lawmakers passed a resolution declaring a rupture in the constitutional order and urging Venezuela’s military to disobey any “unconstitutional” commands from the Maduro administration.

“There has been no act of force” to justify such a declaration, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez said Tuesday, accusing the assembly of seeking to undermine Venezuela’s institutions “to bring down the legitimately constituted government.”

As a “strictly professional” institution, the military remains “unconditionally loyal” to the head of state and commander-in-chief, Padrino said on state television, reading from an official armed forces statement.

Hours after the defense minister spoke, congress voted to explore the impeachment of Maduro, though the opposition acknowledges the move would have no practical force.