France’s Macron meets with Venezuela opposition leaders
PARIS French President Emmanuel Macron met with Venezuela opposition leaders Monday to discuss the embattled nation’s humanitarian and political crisis, two days after a leading activist was barred from leaving the country in order to attend the Paris meeting.
Foreign nations including Spain and the United Kingdom, whose leaders are expected to meet with members of Venezuela’s opposition-controlled National Assembly this week, have decried the socialist government’s move to bar Lilian Tintori from leaving Venezuela.
In Caracas, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said Monday that he filed complaints with the ambassadors of four foreign nations for purportedly intervening in Venezuela’s affairs after they accompanied Tintori to the airport.
“These types of expressions are absurd and offensive to the functioning of Venezuelan democracy and its institutions,” Arreaza said.
Julio Borges, president of the National Assembly, and Freddy Guevara, the legislature’s first vicepresident, are proceeding with meetings scheduled this week with European leaders aimed at increasing international pressure on President Nicolas Maduro to hold elections, respect a balance of power and allow humanitarian aid.
Borges and Guevara told Macron that Venezuelans are in dire need of basic necessities like food and medicine at the same time that Maduro’s government is stripping away basic civil rights. Borges said Macron asked “several times what he could do to relieve the crisis” and offered the possibility of providing humanitarian aid.
That’s a prospect that Maduro is likely to reject. The Venezuelan leader has routinely refused to accept any foreign assistance, denying the nation is facing a crisis and claiming it could pave the way toward foreign intervention.
“Dozens of countries have offered free food and medicine and it’s unbelievable that the main obstacle is (the) government, the one which is supposed to defend the rights of the Venezuelan people,” Borges said.
Hours after the meeting, Macron’s office issued a statement by the president indicating he was ready to push for European sanctions against Maduro’s administration.
Condemning what he called repression of the opposition, Macron said France was ready to launch European discussions “toward adopting measures targeting those responsible for this situation.” He did not elaborate on what he had in mind.