Venezuelan Opposition Announces List Of Demands Before Return To Talks With Government

Foreign ministers from Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador as well as an envoy from the Vatican met with members of Venezuela’s Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) opposition coalition on Monday in an attempt to persuade them to rejoin talks with the government of president Nicolás Maduro. MUD leaders had announced last week that they were dropping out of negotiations over several key points due to the government’s refusal to cede ground. On Monday, the coalition presented the ambassadors with a list of demands.

Among the demands is the release of Iván Simonovis -- the former police commissioner sentenced to 30 years in prison for complicity with the deaths of pro-government protestors who took to the streets after a 2002 coup knocked Maduro’s predecessor Hugo Chavez from power -- as well as amnesty for all student members of the opposition. The coalition will also seek the disarmament of the colectivos, or grassroots collectives which run a host of services in poor neighborhoods. Members of the collectives have been blamed for the deaths of opposition protestors.

Another demand consists of the inclusion of student opposition sectors in dialogue, MUD secretary Ramón Guillermo Aveledo told El Universal. “From day one, we said that the students represent themselves and we took the opportunity to ask the government to receive them, to listen to them, and that still hasn’t happened. Has that helped bring the protests to an end? No, it has not … the path of repression has failed, [the government] has to examine a different route,” he said.