Summit in Uruguay for an internal solution for Venezuela

The International Contact Group for Venezuela (GCI), which met on Thursday in Montevideo, decided to send a technical mission to the country. country to dialogue with both parties. .

The group said that the end of the crisis should be a "Venezuelan solution", in line with the initial position of the head of European diplomacy, Federica Mogherini, who defended to avoid any intervention in the country.

Chancellor Rodolfo Nin Novoa, of Uruguay, said that "the solution must be Venezuelan, because the other solution is chaos, that is the confrontation and that". it can certainly be caused by an armed conflict ".

The group also called for the holding of elections. presidential elections, according to the statement issued at the end of the meeting, signed by all participating countries, with the exception of Bolivia and Mexico, which is not part of the contact group, but attended the meeting .

"The group calls for the creation of a common international approach to support a peaceful, political, democratic and fully Venezuelan resolution of the crisis, excluding the use of force through free and transparent presidential elections (19659003) Mogherini also pointed out that the European Union (EU) had already mobilized aid to Venezuela in the amount of 60 million euros, to which an additional 5 million will be added. humanitarian aid to Venezuela was to be channeled in an impartial and non-politicized manner and the EU was willing to open an office in Caracas to manage humanitarian aid.

was represented by Mogherini and eight Member States: Portugal, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Sweden On the Latin American side, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico and Uruguay were present. 1 9659003] Novoa said participation in the group was open to other countries and highlighted "confluence" with the Montevideo mechanism, an initiative. proposed by Mexico and Uruguay and consists of four stages, focusing on immediate dialogue, negotiation, commitments and implementation.

Regarding the Montevideo Mechanism, Mogherini said that although it was not inconsistent, it had different objectives than those of the International Group.

The three members of the group (Bolivia, Italy and Uruguay) did not recognize the president of the National Assembly, Juan Guaidó, president in charge of Venezuela.

Brazil, which does not participate in the international contact group on Venezuela, declared that the initiative "is not useful" and will only serve to extend the term of President Nicolás Maduro.

In Washington, Foreign Minister Ernesto Araújo said that this group had a wrong postulate, saying that Maduro had the same legitimacy as Guaidó, who declared himself current president of Venezuela on 23 January. Since then, the tension has increased in the country.

"This is based on the principle of equality between the legitimate government of Guaidó and the dictatorship of Maduro.As the past shows, this initiative will not prosper, it will only prolong the dictatorship of Maduro and create doubts about the transition, "said Araújo. "This will serve to delay the process, so we do not think it's a good help," he added.

Brazil is part of the Lima group, made up of a dozen countries on the American continent that it considers broken. the constitutional order in Venezuela. The Lima group met Monday in Ottawa, Canada, and decided not to consider the military option of forcing Maduro to leave.

Araujo, visiting this week in Washington, spoke of Venezuela with members of the US government, which does not rule out the military option for the South American country. When asked when he had approached the US authorities with the possibility of bringing soldiers to Venezuela, Araújo replied, "We have not had any conversation about a type of police officer. military option, we believe that democracy can progress and move forward. "