Vatican steps into Venezuelan crisis
VENEZUELA: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro with Pope Francis yesterday as the Vatican took a more active role in trying to defuse a tense political standoff in the South American nation.
Maduro spoke with the pontiff in a private meeting while on his way back to Venezuela following a tour of oil-producing nations of the Middle East.
As news of the surprise meeting surfaced, back in Venezuela Monsignor Emil Paul Tscherrig, who Francis dispatched in a bid to jumpstart dialogue between the government and the opposition, announced that representatives of the two sides would meet on Sunday on the Venezuelan island of Margarita, under the auspices of the Vatican and the Union of South American Nations.
``It’s important to have light, a lamp to guide us through this tunnel of a fight that we’ve entered,’’ opposition alliance chief Jesus Torrealba said prior to his meeting with Tscherrig, the Vatican’s representative to Francis’s native Argentina. ``We’re embarking on a process of struggle that will be complex and difficult.’’
The political crisis hadn’t yet erupted when Maduro went abroad. Shortly after he left for Azerbaijan last Friday, electoral authorities suspended a recall referendum seeking his removal, prompting the oppositioncontrolled congress to call for demonstrations and declare that the government had carried out a coup.
The Vatican said Francis urged Maduro to courageously take the path of ``sincere and constructive dialogue’’ to alleviate the suffering of the Venezuelan people, especially the poor. He also called on Maduro to promote a climate of renewed social cohesion that would allow everyone to look to the future with hope.
It is not clear how much influence the Vatican will have in bringing the two sides together in a country that for almost two decades has been bitterly divided.
As soon as the meeting was
"It's important to have light, a lamp to guide us through this tunnel of a fight that we've entered." Jesus Torrealba, Venezuela opposition alliance chief
announced, some of Maduro’s most prominent critics expressed dismay that hours after declaring itself in open rebellion and calling for mass protests tomorrow, the opposition alliance was now engaging with the government.
Socialist strongman Diosdado Cabello accused his opponents of using the dialogue as a smokescreen to hide its intent to violently force Maduro from power.
Maduro, speaking from Rome, thanked the pope for helping to bring about dialogue ``between the distinct factions of the opposition and the legitimate and Bolivarian government I preside over’’.
Tscherrig said the talks were aimed at building confidence and a mechanism for peacefully resolving disputes.
The decision to halt the referendum process scuttles the opposition’s best chance of peacefully removing Maduro from office before his term ends in 2019.