Norwegian delegation arrives in Venezuela to restart dialogue
CARACAS: A delegation from the Norwegian government has come to Venezuela to restart talks between the government of President Nicolas Maduro and the opposition that were halted last week after Maduro’s allies pulled out, according to four sources and opposition leader Juan Guaido.
Maduro last week said the government would not attend a scheduled round of talks in Barbados to protest the opposition’s support for new US sanctions against his government. The Norwegian delegation arrived on Tuesday to speak separately with the opposition and the government to restart the proceedings, which are meant to resolve the country’s political stalemate, two of the sources said.
Neither Venezuela’s Information Ministry nor the Norwegian Foreign Ministry responded to requests for comment.
“There is no new (meeting) planned, but yes, the representatives of the Kingdom of Norway are here in the country,” Guaido told reporters. “The regime in previous years used (dialogue) to stall for time or to generate doubts within the opposition. They will not do so in this case.”
Guaido in January invoked the constitution to assume a rival interim presidency on the grounds that Maduro’s 2018 reelection was fraudulent, and has promised to end an economic crisis that spurred mass migration.
Guaido, who has been recognised by more than 50 countries including the United States as Venezuela’s legitimate president, described the new Washington sanctions as “penalties for those who steal and profit from misery.”
Maduro calls Guaido a Washington-backed puppet who is seeking to overthrow his government.
The Norway-backed talks began in May following a failed uprising against Maduro but have not yet yielded any official results.
Separately, the United Nations launched an appeal on Wednesday calling for $223 million of humanitarian aid for 2.6 million Venezuelans until the end of the year as part of a “scale-up strategy” launched last October.