Venezuela: Contact Group celebrated progress in negotiations between Chavismo and opposition in Mexico

The International Contact Group (ICG) for Venezuela on Thursday welcomed the “comprehensive” negotiations between the Maduro regime and the Venezuelan opposition, since they can make it possible to establish a “concerted solution” to the Venezuelan crisis.

On the eve of a second round of contacts in Mexico City, members of the group urged Venezuelan political parties to “participate constructively and in good faith” at the negotiating table, because precisely a negotiation “is the the only way out of the crisis that Venezuela is going through ”.

This negotiation, they stressed, it must be political and it must lead to “the organization of credible, free and transparent elections in accordance with the constitutional and legal framework of Venezuela”.

“This inclusive dialogue process can lay the foundations for a consensual solution to the Venezuelan crisis”, Declared the members of the Group.

“The only way out of the crisis Venezuela is going through is political negotiations and the organization of credible, free and transparent elections. in accordance with Venezuela’s constitutional and legal framework, ”they declared.

The Group thanked Norway for its role in organizing this dialogue and for Mexico’s support.

The meeting, which will take place from September 3-6, is preceded by a memorandum of understanding signed by both parties, which arouses ambitions in terms of “political rights”, “electoral guarantees”, “political coexistence” or even “protection of the economy”. He also evokes the “lifting of sanctions” and the “restoration of the right to property” which remain frozen today, one of the great demands of Maduro and his environment.

The two sides met in mid-August, in a move already relevant given the public contempt they have professed in recent years., marked by a bicephay in which, facing Maduro, the opponent Juan Guaidó claimed in front of Venezuela and the world as legitimate and responsible president.

After the first meeting at the end of August, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), an entity of the AEO, asked for a dialogue “serious“Between the regime of Mature and the opposition in Venezuela.

“The IACHR calls on the various political actors in Venezuela to hold a serious, broad and inclusive dialogue for the urgent reconstruction of democratic institutions with a view to guarantee of human rights in this country“He said in a statement.

In addition, “it is made available to the parties to support the negotiation, as well as providing technical assistance for the implementation of commitments made», Added this organ of the Organization of American States (OAS).

The IACHR, which set up in October 2019 a Special Monitoring Mechanism for Venezuela (MESEVE) in the face of what it considered to be a “serious human rights crisis“, reiterated that the country of South America lives”a deep crisis of democratic institutions “with” the absence of the rule of law “.

This “facilitated the commission of serious violations human rights against those who make public their disagreement with the government, as well as the deterioration of the living conditions of the population in general, responsible for the forced migration of at least 5.6 million people since 2015“, he underlined.

(With information from EFE and Europa Press)

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