:quality(85)//cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/infobae/OE6PP4MWSJEVVOOVAM2NLC3GPY.jpg "New blackmail of Chavismo: the regime has assured that it will not sign any agreement with the opposition until the United States lifts the sanctions 1")
The Venezuelan dictatorship will not sign “any agreement” with the opposition grouped within the United Platform, with which it is carrying out a negotiation process in Mexico, until the economic sanctions against the country are lifted, said Thursday the head of the Chavista delegation for dialogue, Jorge Rodriguez.
“Venezuela will not sign any agreement with this sector of the national opposition until it is 100% free of sanctions. Until the 765 unilateral coercive measures signed by (former Presidents of the United States) Donald Trump and Barack Obama are lifted, we are not going to do it,” he said in an act for the “Day of Bolivarian anti-imperialism” in Caracas.
The also president of the Chavista Parliament recalled that last November a social agreement was signed between the regime and the opposition, which envisages the recovery of more than 3,000 million dollars from the Venezuelan state that they are stuck in the international financial system, and reproached that this pact has not yet been respected.
He assured that this failure is due to the fact that the opposition “has no word”which did not allow the realization of the agreement, that is to say the creation of a trust fund – managed by the United Nations – to channel items intended to relieve hunger, disease and other needs in the South American country.
Rodríguez considered it “immoral” that the anti-Chavismo sectors, which previously called for sanctions against the regime of Nicolás Maduro, are now calling for “fair” and “free” elections, alluding to the presidential elections that the country must hold in 2024.
“The dialogues are not for pardons, the dialogues are for agreeing, in the terms in which they can be agreed, to free, competitive, democratic elections and without forgetting”, he concluded.
The dictatorship has conditioned the continuation of the talks in Mexico on the respect by the opposition of the “return to the Venezuelan people of the 3,200 million” agreed in the social agreement and whose return to the country, he assures, depends on the efforts of the anti-Chavistas.
A few weeks ago, Maduro also questioned the return to dialogue with the opposition, believing that there are no certainties or guarantees from the anti-Chavistas for the negotiation.
“If they can’t keep a deal that’s been discussed for months, which was signed with international guarantors, with international observers, what guarantees, what certainty, what motivation can the revolutionary government have (…) to return to sit at a table with this sector? None,” the dictator said while appearing on a program broadcast by the regime’s propaganda channel Venezolana de Televisión (VTV).
As stated by Jorge Rodríguez, Maduro accused the Unity Platform of breaking his word by not specifying the second partial agreement for the protection of the Venezuelan people, signed in November by the two parties and which envisages the recovery of the resources retained in the international financial system due to the blockade.
“It’s the reality of a sector that has no words, that they called for sanctions, that they called for an invasion, that now they’re trying to apologize and wash their faces , sit down and speak for the call we made, sign an agreement for 3.2 billion who don’t comply, don’t recognize it,” he insisted.
In recent weeks, Chavista and opposition delegations have accused each other of obstructing compliance with the agreement, which has suspended the continuity of talks in Mexico.
Dialogues in Mexico resumed in November 2022 after being suspended for 15 months following the extradition to the United States of businessman Alex Saab, accused of money laundering and accused of being the leader of Maduro .
(With information from EFE)
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