Venezuela News: Opposition Agrees To Work With Government On Crime Rate, Truth Commission On Violence During Protests

Talks between the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and heads of the opposition coalition known as the Democratic Unity Roundtable picked up on Tuesday after commencing on Thursday. Over the course of a five-hour meeting behind closed doors, the groups managed to work out an agreement to collaborate on a truth commission established to investigate violence occurring during protests over the last two months as well as on the expansion of a federal government crime-fighting initiative, according to TeleSur.

That initiative, known as Plan Patria Segura (or Operation Secure Homeland), will be extended to include areas governed by opposition governors and mayors, according to El Pais. The government credits the plan with an 18 percent drop in homicides in 2013; interior minister Miguel Rodríguez Torres said on Saturday that special emphasis would be put on fighting crime in the state of Miranda, which is governed by Henrique Capriles, who lost to Maduro in last April’s presidential elections. According to Rodríguez Torres, of the top 20 municipalities where crime has spiked in recent years, “7 are in Miranda state”.

The Associated Press reports that prior to Tuesday’s talks, the government had insisted that the truth commission tasked with investigating violence related to the protests – which have left 41 dead and several hundred injured – be staffed by members of Congress, which is dominated by Chavista lawmakers. But on Tuesday the government agreed to include national figures trusted by both the opposition and government. It also agreed to allow a team of doctors to check up on Iván Simonovis, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the deaths of two protestors in unrest prior to the coup which unseated Hugo Chavez from power in 2002.