Caracas/The Government of Venezuela said this Monday that a negotiation is not planned with the majority opposition and “less so” with the anti-Chavista leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado, who recently insisted that she must be the interlocutor in negotiations with the ruling party that lead to presidential elections in the country.
“That is pure straw (lie),” said the Minister of the Interior and general secretary of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), Diosdado Cabello, about the call of the majority sector of the opposition and its leaders, Machado and Edmundo González Urrutia, for a “serious, firm and responsible” negotiation with the Government of the president in charge, Delcy Rodríguez, with the support of the United States to “restore democracy” through a presidential election.
During the PSUV’s weekly press conference, broadcast by the state channel Venezolana de Televisión, Cabello assured that with the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD), the largest opposition coalition, “nothing is proposed and with her (Machado) even less so.”
Machado insisted that she has “the responsibility of directing the negotiation process” with the Rodríguez Government
Likewise, he indicated that “there has not been any meeting anywhere in the world” between the president in charge and “any similar person” and that “they (the opponents) are not in a position to set conditions in this country.”
Last Thursday, Machado insisted that she has “the responsibility of directing the negotiation process” with the Rodríguez Government and assured that this is the best option for Chavismo, which, she considered, is in an “unsustainable” situation and that, by “one way or another, it will get out.”
In an interview with journalist Carla Angola from Oslo, the opposition warned that “anything can happen” in Venezuela if the transition process is not carried out in an orderly, peaceful manner and with guarantees with all parties involved.
In that sense, he explained that there must be a clear and very defined protocol in terms of objectives, deadlines and ways of evaluating the results and also pointed out the need for the Venezuelan people to be “in the middle” and very well informed of what is being discussed.
Recently, Machado announced that she will be a candidate and said that “the departure of Rodríguez, who took office after the capture of Nicolás Maduro by the United States last January in Caracas, is “not in doubt.”
