Venezuela Dialogues Between Government And Opposition Could Revive Soon, Say Ambassadors

El Nacional reports that foreign ministers from Colombia, Brazil and Ecuador, who along with a Vatican envoy have been mediating talks between the Venezuelan government and an opposition coalition, said a Monday meeting between the two sides had yielded “progress,” adding that both parties were willing to “keep working in search of solutions of benefit to all Venezuelans.” Ecuadorian foreign minister Ricardo Patiño wrote on Twitter that “gates of communication” had been re-opened, adding “We’re advancing on several points of the agenda."

Dialogues have proceeded slowly since their inception on April 10 and appeared to hang in the balance after the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) -- the opposition coalition on hand -- said last week it would abandon attempts to work out a compromise over several of the most important issues, a decision taken partly as a reaction to the detention of over 200 students during an anti-government demonstration days before. The South American ministers said on Monday that the more than thirty parties which make up the MUD had reiterated their willingness to keep working with the government of president Nicolás Maduro and that both sides had presented “ideas,” though the ministers did not give further details.

But El Pais notes that compromise on the MUD’s key demands seems unlikely. Those demands, outlined last week by the opposition, include amnesty for former Caracas police commissioner Iván Simonovis (whom they consider a political prisoner) along with the incorporation of student opposition groups into the talks and the creation of a truly independent investigative commission on protest-linked violence (the current commission consists exclusively of pro-Maduro lawmakers).