United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken communicates with Interim President of Venezuela Juan Guaidó

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken communicated for the first time with the interim president of Venezuela, Juan Guaidó. This has been reported The Associated Press through his correspondent for the Caribbean country, Joshua Goodman, who cited two Venezuelan sources. The content of the conversation did not appear immediately.

A few hours earlier, the head of diplomacy of the North American country He had communicated with his counterpart in Norway, a country which has mediated between the dictatorship and the opposition in recent years..

It was the first formal communication between Guaidó and Blinken, who had already argued that Joe Biden’s administration would continue recognizing him as a legitimate interlocutor to the detriment of Nicolás Maduro, whom he described as a “brutal dictator”.

The official spoke in depth about the Caribbean country during his confirmation hearing before the Senate External Relations Committee, before taking office. At this point, Marco Rubio asked him if it was “his vision that our position vis-à-vis Venezuela must change in substance, that we should no longer recognize Juan Guaidó and enter into negotiations with Maduro”.

Blinken denied that this was the case and said he “strongly agreed” with Rubio in a series of moves Washington took towards Caracas under the previous administration. Among them, he mentioned the recognition of Guaidó as interim president of Venezuela, as well as of the National Assembly elected in 2015 as the only democratically elected institution in the country..

He also said he agreed in research to “increase the pressure on the regime”. “The hardest part is that despite all these efforts, which I support, we obviously haven’t achieved the results we need.“, he claimed.

Among the aspects “to consider”, he highlighted “better and stronger coordination cooperation with like-minded countries” and a “more effective” approach to sanctions. “So that the diet facilitators really feel the pain“.

Over the weekend, a White House official said the government It is “in no hurry” to lift the sanctions imposed on the dictatorship, and would only be considered if “the regime takes confidence-building measures which demonstrate that it is ready and willing to engage in real talks with the opposition.“.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not specify what steps Maduro should take, but said he could not be allowed to use the negotiations as a “delaying tactic” to consolidate power and divide the opposition, as it has been. accused. to do in the past.

In the same vein, the senior advisor of the National Security Council of the White House, Juan González, spoke. In February, the official said that “Maduro used dialogue to delay and jail opposition members“.

At a general level, he said the approach will be “a two-party policy” and that they also plan to “restore a multilateral coalition in favor of a democratic solution to the current crisis”. He also explained that he was seeking to “redouble humanitarian efforts not only inside the country”, but also in other countries such as Colombia which have been strongly affected by the migration crisis generated by the regime.

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