Venezuelan Nobel Peach Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado and opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia said they will not participate a dialogue between representatives of the Venezuelan government and members of the National Assembly elected in 2015. File Photo by Bienvenido Velasco/EPA
July 27 (UPI) — Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado and opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia said they will not participate a dialogue between representatives of the Venezuelan government and members of the National Assembly elected in 2015.
They said, however, they will not stand in the way of any initiative that produces concrete progress toward a democratic transition.
The dialogue mechanism was announced earlier this month by representatives of the government led by Vice President Delcy Rodríguez and members of the National Assembly elected in 2015, headed by Dinorah Figuera.
Both sides said the talks will formally begin Saturday and address issues that include institutional recovery, the electoral system, guarantees for political participation and the country’s reconstruction after the June 24 dual earthquakes.
The process has the backing of the United States. The U.S. State Department described the roadmap as an important step toward Venezuela’s political reconciliation and national recovery, while the Spanish newspaper El País reported that Washington has played an active role in promoting the talks and a possible political transition.
In a joint statement addressed to the Venezuelan people and the international community, Machado and González said they did not participate in the design, creation or operation of the dialogue mechanism.
“Those promoting it must inform the country of its objectives, its methodology and its timetable,” they said.
The opposition leaders said they will assess any negotiation based on “concrete and verifiable” results, including restoration of democratic institutions, release of all political prisoners, guarantees for all political actors without exclusion, a timely timetable for presidential elections and full respect for the will of the people.
The statement opens by reaffirming the validity of the mandate that, according to both leaders, emerged from the opposition primary election held Oct. 22, 2023, and the presidential election of July 28, 2024.
“That mandate remains in force,” they said.
Machado and González also said Venezuela is facing a crisis that has accumulated over more than 25 years and was made worse the June 24 earthquakes, which they said left communities devastated and deepened the humanitarian emergency.
Against that backdrop, they alleged that citizen-led aid efforts after the earthquakes were subject to attempts to block and control the aid.
“Venezuelans saw with their own eyes how the aid organized by the people themselves was blocked, diverted and controlled to prevent it from reaching those who needed it most,” the statement said.
The opposition leaders argued that rebuilding the country requires “a new government with moral authority and managerial capacity” to guarantee freedoms, restore the institutions of the Republic and support families affected by the disaster.
Machado and González reiterated their commitment to return to Venezuela to stand alongside the public during the country’s reconstruction.