Brussels (EFE).- The presidents of Colombia, Argentina, Brazil and France met in Brussels with a delegation from the Venezuelan government and the opposition to try to “mediate” and bring the parties back to dialogue in the Caribbean country.
The meeting, private and in parallel to the summit of the European Union and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac), was attended by the presidents Gustavo Petro (Colombia), Alberto Fernández (Argentina), Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Brazil) and Emmanuel Macron (France), as well as the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell.
The Venezuelan government was represented by Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, and the opposition by the head of the Unitary Platform delegation, Gerardo Blyde.
The objective of this meeting was “to reacclimate a process that allows a democratic agreement to be reached through dialogue between the different factions of Venezuelan society,” Petro explained to the press before the meeting.
Petro, as he said before the meeting, once again offered Colombia for a meeting -still without a date- between the Venezuelan government and the opposition.
The dialogue of Venezuela
The president reiterated that his country “has always been ready, the Colombian territory is ready for dialogue. In fact, Venezuela is the guarantor of the two peace processes that are being carried out (in Colombia) and has been a territorial space for dialogues, to that extent we are willing to make space for a democratic dialogue on Venezuela”.
Colombia has already hosted the International Conference on the Political Process in Venezuela, which took place on April 25 in Bogotá, in which neither the Venezuelan government nor the opposition participated.
In that meeting, which brought together Latin American, North American and European delegates, as well as Borrell, the need to establish an electoral schedule for “the holding of free, transparent elections and with full guarantees for all Venezuelan actors” was discussed.
It was also agreed then that “the steps agreed to the satisfaction of the parties go in parallel with the lifting of the different sanctions” that weigh on Venezuela.
The role of the international community
The two parties formally met for the last time last November in Mexico, in the negotiation process that is still stuck and that the international community is trying to unblock before the 2024 presidential elections, whose primaries will take place next October.
For his part, the Argentine president, Alberto Fernández, stressed, according to a statement provided from Buenos Aires, that it is “necessary to deepen the path of respect for Venezuelan sovereignty and, at the same time, help all possible negotiations, trying to make the democratic coexistence in Venezuela a reality”.
Fernández pointed out that the role of the international community “must consist of promoting and supporting the resumption of dialogue between the opposition and the government and affirmed that there is no other way to resolve the deep crisis that has led millions of Venezuelans to leave their country.”