Despite Medina’s optimism, the talks between the Venezuelan government and opposition have broken down. On Wednesday, 7 February 2018, President Danilo Medina admitted in a press conference: “We could not reach an agreement.” He announced that the talks between the Venezuelan government and opposition are now indefinitely suspended.
A pre-agreement signed by the Venezuelan government representatives had established the presidential election would be convened for 22 April 2018. The ruling Partido Socialista Unido has already announced the candidacy of Nicolas Maduro who seeks reelection.
The opposition had called for the election to be postponed until September and an independent electoral organizing commission to be convened. The former executive secretary of the opposition alliance, Mesa de la Unidad Democrática, Jesús Torrealba, has said the elections are being called just to legitimize the Maduro government. Maduro is likely to be reelected after government-controlled agencies, including the National Electoral Council, have barred several opposition leaders from running and declared several of the most important opposition parties illegal.
An editorial in El Dia writes that the Maduro government was the winner of the Santo Domingo talks. The editorialist wrote:
“Since the beginning of the farce of the supposed dialogue promoted by the government of dictator Nicolás Maduro, it was known that it was a strategy to gain time, at a time when the Venezuelan people’s intention to recover their democracy was clear. It deceived only one sector of the opposition, but it achieved its first objective: to divide it and stop the protests that made its regime tremble.
“It also deceived the Dominican government, which, guided by an ill-oriented sense of solidarity, threw a lifeline that gave it enough oxygen to continue to undermine Venezuela’s democracy.
“Now, his next deception will be to want to blame the opposition for the failure of the negotiations in Santo Domingo.
“The Venezuelan opposition demanded that the agreements not remain in simple declarations of principles.
“They demanded to specify, for example, actions to bring “equal conditions in the electoral process,” or that the opposition leaders be enabled to participate in an electoral tournament.
“Of course, they were not interested. So much so that neither came to the round yesterday. What happened was seen to be coming.”
Read more in Spanish:
Listin Diario
Hoy
7 Dias
El Dia
Diario Libre
8 February 2018
