The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, has come out again on the international scene. His appearance at COP27 was surprising It had been a long time since he rubbed shoulders with leaders who were not his allies.
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In addition, since in 2020 the United States offered a reward of 20,000,000 dollars for his capture and then the pandemic appeared, Maduro’s international visits decreased, while international pressure increased.
(You can read: EU renews sanctions against Chavista officials for attacking Human Rights)
At the end of 2021, the president appeared at the summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) in Mexico, a state that has not only advocated for the inclusion of Venezuela in events such as the Summit of the Americas, but also hosts dialogues between the opposition and the Venezuelan ruling party.
Then, in June 2022, Maduro undertook his first international tour in a long time. Sanctioned by the United States, he had remained in the country with a couple of visits to Cuba. Outside the continent he landed in 2018, in Russia.
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Little by little it has been seen how the questioned president returns to the international scene and reveals a weakened image of Juan Guaidóhis counterpart, who is also recognized as president of Venezuela by the United States and some 40 other countries, including France, but whose president extended his hand to Maduro at this COP27 and even served as host, along with Colombia and Argentina, so that the ruling party and the opposition will sit down to talk again in Paris.
“We are going to see a lot of things happening shortly. Negotiations, flexibility and new international alliances and everything probably before the end of the year. And this can have a positive impact on national economic activity”, is how the president of the Datanalysis polling company, Luis Vicente León, considers it.
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We are going to see a lot of things happening shortly. Negotiations, flexibility and new international alliances. And this can have positive impacts on national economic activity.
León also believes that these latest movements, which include the influence of Gustavo Petro and the victory of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil, are “the prelude to the end of the strategy that the United States has followed against Venezuela. It would be strange if he took on the region to support something that obviously hasn’t worked.”
This also agrees with Emmanuel Macron’s attitude towards Maduro, despite the fact that he does not recognize him as president of Venezuela. In a corridor in the middle of COP27, the French president spoke with the Venezuelan and offered to support the dialogue and even promised to call him.
“Je vous appellerai (I’ll call you),” Macron tells Maduro in a video released by the Venezuelan president’s official press.
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These scenarios seem favorable for Maduro, who has been branded a dictator and violator of human rights. Even, the same International Criminal Court (ICC) is following a process against Venezuela and recently indicated that the country’s appeals were insufficient to stop the investigation for crimes against humanity.
However, that the president has these approaches and that the United States has handed over the nephews of the first lady, Cilia Flores, in exchange for seven Americans imprisoned in Venezuela, is a sign that the interlocutor continues to be Maduro, who takes the opportunity to add points for the 2024 presidential elections.
For the political scientist Daniel Arias, in addition to the participation of France, the fact that Colombia and Argentina are present not only shows the reconfiguration of the left in Latin America, but also the need to stop the migration crisis further encourages dialogue between the government and opposition, and with it the figure of Maduro.
(Also read: Maduro signs with Petro at the COP27 environmental summit)
But there are those who have their doubts about the feasibility of the talks. “Just as Maduro declared Christmas, without fulfilling the work commitments of the teachers, he would also prepare for another probable parody that is not surprising that he will be astonished again because he presses for the freedom of the Colombian Álex Saab, a ‘Venezuelan diplomat,’” he says. attorney and former congressman Nelson Chitty La Roche.
For his part, Juan Guaidó, who apparently continues to be left out of the negotiations, insists that his interest is to continue calling for presidential elections and “seek results in favor of Venezuelans and a solution to this conflict,” he wrote in his Twitter account referring to the meeting between the opposition and Chavismo in Paris.
(Also: The details of the talk between Nicolás Maduro and Emmanuel Macron)
Despite what seemed like progress for Chavismo, Europe has also put a brake.
The political scientist Daniel Arias considers that the presence of France is due to the fact that it is the direct representative of the European Union “authorized by the United States to lift sanctions”, but at the same time that these approaches were taking place, the European Union itself renewed sanctions against Chavismo officials.
To this the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry responded considering that It was a “slap in the face” to the recently started processespecially since part of Venezuela’s request to return to negotiations in Mexico is that the sanctions imposed on the country and officials, which include freezing assets abroad, be lifted.
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“The decision of the European Union, published on the same day that President Emmanuel Macron publicly expresses his willingness to support the negotiations between the Government of Venezuela and a sector of the opposition, is incoherent and constitutes a slap in the face of the French initiative called Forum for Peace”, reads the statement issued by the Foreign Ministry.
ANA RODRIGUEZ BRAZON
Correspondent THE TIME
Caracas
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