Members of the Venezuelan interim government met with a major opposition party to discuss achieving a “democratic transition” in the country, according to what the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced. US State Department.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Tommy Pigot said: “The meeting between National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez and former opposition MP Dinora Figuera, who returned to… Caracas Thursday, after spending eight years in exile, represents the first step in what will be a deliberate process to ensure a free and open Venezuelan society.”
Figuera, 65, assumed the presidency of the National Assembly in 2015 before going into exile in 2018 after being subjected to “threats and harassment” because she spoke on behalf of her colleague in the “Justice First” party, Fernando Albán, who died in prison in October of the same year.
President Nicolas Maduro (X).
American forces arrested the president Nicolas Maduro In January, and since then his deputy, Delcy Rodriguezacting leadership of the Venezuelan government.
With her return to VenezuelaFiguera sought to distance herself from opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado, who recently launched her own initiative to negotiate a democratic transition in Venezuela.
“At this time, I am responding to an invitation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to take on all these challenges (…) regarding the formation of a credible national electoral council,” Figuera told reporters upon her arrival at the airport.
The National Assembly later confirmed Figuera’s meeting with Jorge Rodriguez, the acting president’s brother, “in her capacity as a representative of opposition representatives for the period between 2015 and 2020.”
The US Embassy in Caracas issued a statement saying that Figuera met in April with a State Department official “to discuss ways to achieve a stable, orderly, and integrated democratic transition.”
