Maduro asks the help of the pope to start a dialogue …

PageI12 In Venezuela

From Caracas

The decision of a group of European governments to recognize MP Juan Guaidó as self-proclaimed president has been severely rejected by Venezuela's constitutional government. The news came only on February 4, date for the Bolivarian Revolution (see separately). In this context, President Nicolás Maduro said that the government remains firm, more rebellious than ever and ensures that "we are defeating American imperialism and the Lima cartel", by defining the Lima group that brings together the Latin American governments adhering to the US coup strategy and that these days meets in Canada. In any case, Maduro has not abandoned the search for a way out of the crisis through dialogue. In this sense, he announced yesterday that he had sent a letter to Pope Francis to intervene in a mediation.

Maduro spoke twice yesterday. It was first during one of his visits to the barracks and during the afternoon, he repeated it by sending a direct message to President Donald Trump, to whom he declared: "We We are ready to fight the most ferocious fights against death and risk. "But he also repudiated" the follow-up of Europe to the dictates of the United States, "which yesterday admitted the deputy of the opposition reiterating the strategy put in place when President Guaidó himself was self-appointed president. On this occasion, the first to support him was Trump via Twitter, and a series of thanks was immediately activated by the Latin American presidents. Yesterday, when the so-called ultimatum that a group of European countries imposed on President Maduro, where he had been summoned to hold elections on pain of recognizing the deputy head of government, the head of the Spanish state, Pedro Sanchez, announced that "officially recognizes the president of the Assembly of Venezuela, Guaidó Márquez, president in charge of Venezuela." Then, as if someone had given the cry to start, he did the same thing in Germany, France, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Austria, Belgium, Poland, Holland, the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Croatia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland.

Chancellor Jorge Arreaza said the declaration was "an announced gesture". He said this at a forum held at Casa Amarilla, the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was attended by more than 60 representatives and leaders of social and political organizations from different Latin American countries and Africa. Shortly after, the Foreign Ministry issued a statement in which he repudiated this decision "to formally adhere to the US Administration's strategy to overthrow the legitimate government of President Nicolás Maduro, chosen by the Venezuelan people in a sovereign, free and democratic way ". In his statement, the Foreign Minister stated that "the sovereignty of the Venezuelan people is not subject to any recognition by a foreign authority, much less after 200 years of breaking the colonial chains, thanks to Libertador Simón Bolívar's independence effort. "In another section, the document is alarming the subordination of these governments" to the warmongering policy "of the United States and indicates that, starting from At this moment, the Venezuelan government will "thoroughly review bilateral relations with these governments until a rectification is made" and abandon its support for the coup d'etat plans and the plans for the coup d'etat. redirects to the strict respect of international law ".

Pope

Maduro has never concealed his decision to seek dialogue as a way out of the crisis engendered by the Trump government's decision to impose a self-proclaimed president to destabilize and overthrow the Bolivarian government. In this context and after accepting the trading tables offered by Mexico and Uruguay, Maduro sent a letter to Pope Francis while he was touring the UAE. In the letter, which Maduro herself announced during an interview with the Italian news channel Sky TG24, he asks for help to finalize the dialogue with the opposition who is seeking to dislodge it from power. "I sent a letter to Pope Francis, I hope that he is on a trip or that he has arrived in Rome, at the Vatican, saying that I am serving the cause of the In this spirit, I asked him to help him, in a process of facilitation and strengthening of dialogue, as a direction, "badured the Venezuelan leader who also claimed that he had asked the Pope "to do his best, his willingness to help us on the path of dialogue .. We hope to receive a positive response."

The initiative of the Venezuelan president has emerged in response to expressions that the same pope had had last week when he was in Panama. On this occasion, Francis called for a "just and peaceful" outing and acknowledged that he was "scared" by the possible bloodbath. In this context, the letter came from Venezuela and it appeared that the possible negotiators were the cardinal secretary of state, Pietro Parolin, and the deputy general affairs (one of the virtual deputy ministers of Parolin Bishop Edgar Peña Parra of Venezuelan nationality After this news, the President of the Argentine Episcopal Conference (CEA), Oscar Ojea, added his attachment to the pope's position. The bishop of San Isidro warned that the goal of the head of the Catholic Church was to "achieve true reconciliation" and warned that "the conflict can be resolved and resolved with a way forward ", stressing that" the pope wants to lose this place "of mediation. Strictly speaking, the Ojea statement can not be considered the official position of the CEA because the reference to Venezuela included it in a video where he recounted his experience at the meeting of Catholic youth who it's happening in Panama.