The envoy for U.S.-backed Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido said Tuesday that more talks are being planned with the regime in Caracas in the coming days, but insisted Tuesday it would be “impossible” to organize new elections as long as socialist President Nicolas Maduro clings to power.
“We need to end the dictatorship,” Ambassador Carlos Vecchio, whom the Trump administration recognizes as the envoy for Mr. Guaido, the self-proclaimed “interim president,” told a briefing at the National Press Club. “It’s impossible, in our view, to have free and fair elections with Maduro in power.”
After an uprising supported by the U.S. and countries around the region failed to dislodge the Maduro government earlier this year, the two sides have been engaged in talks mediated by Norway, seeking to end to the hemisphere’s biggest economic and humanitarian crisis. The IMF reported Monday that Venezuela, which boasts some of the world’s largest oil reserves, has shrunk by more than 60 percent since 2013 under Mr. Maduro, among the steepest five-year contractions the world has seen over the last half-century.
“There will be another round this week. I don’t want to go into details because I don’t want to affect those conversations,” Mr. Vecchio said, declining Tuesday to detail when and where the next round of talks would be held.
Mr. Vecchio said the goal of these talks is to have a peaceful transition, which he thinks can happen with help from Mr. Maduro’s inner circle.
“I’m expecting that many of [the inner circle] would facilitate the transition in our country and that’s why we need to increase the pressure right now,” Mr. Vecchio said.
Some of Mr. Maduro’s closest allies have fled Venezuela, notably the former chief of secret police, Gen. Manuel Cristopher Figuera, who arrived in the U.S. in June after sanctions on him were lifted.
Mr. Vecchio himself went into hiding for more than three months after the Maduro regime ordered his arrest in 2014. He said he evaded “violent attempts” to detain him three times before deciding to leave the country.
During negotiations, Mr. Vecchio said Mr. Maduro’s regime has not presented any solutions for a peaceful transition.
“The only obstacle for peace in our country is Nicolas Maduro,” Mr. Vecchio said. “He is not presenting any solution to the crisis.”
The last talks took place in Barbados in early July.
Brazil, Colombia and other regional countries that have absorbed the millions of Venezuelans fleeing poverty and repression under Mr. Maduro have joined the U.S. in demanding the current government step down. Mr. Vecchio said the regime’s few friends, including China, Cuba and Russia, should not be propping up the government.
“Russia should not support a brutal dictatorship,” Mr. Vecchio said. “Instead of supporting the suffering of Venezuela, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin should recognize the position that the region has in order to facilitate the transition in our country.”
He said a new Venezuelan government would be open to having a relationship with Russia as long as it is one based “mutual respect and mutual cooperation.”
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