Venezuela's Interim Government to Begin Formal Talks with Opposition

Venezuela’s interim government has announced that it will begin formal talks with the opposition, aimed at strengthening democracy in the country. The move is backed by the US, which is seeking a democratic transition in Venezuela, still recovering from the twin earthquakes that killed over 4,700 people. The opposition will be represented in the talks by Dinorah Figuera, who recently returned to Caracas from exile in Spain.

Figuera had been living in exile since 2018 but returned to Venezuela at the invitation of the US state department. The formal talks were first announced by Figuera on Tuesday and later confirmed by the president of the national assembly, Jorge Rodríguez. Rodríguez stated that a joint working group aimed at strengthening democracy would begin on 1 August with former members of the national assembly elected in 2015, which was then led by Figuera.

The 2015 assembly was the first and only opposition-controlled congress elected under Chavismo, the left-wing movement named after its founder, former president Hugo Chávez. A week before the 24 June earthquakes, Figuera returned to Venezuela and held her first meeting with Jorge Rodríguez. The US state department praised that meeting as the beginning of a roadmap for a political dialogue on a democratic transition.

However, the opposition had expected Nobel laureate María Corina Machado to lead negotiations over new elections. Machado announced that the parties in the opposition coalition would meet to define a public position on the announcement of talks between members of the 2015 national assembly and the regime. The assembly’s social media account thanked the US for its support and announced that the joint working group’s priority would be strengthening the electoral system and restoring guarantees for political participation.

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, reposted the statement, and according to the New York Times, has been running Venezuela from Washington as a ‘de facto viceroy’. Despite the announcements, there is still no timetable for new elections. Maduro is widely believed to have stolen the 2024 election, and Delcy Rodríguez was his vice-president.

Public anger has been growing over what many see as the government’s botched response to the earthquakes. Even within the opposition, the expectation is that rebuilding the electoral system would take at least eight months.