The meeting, according to the Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MREC), will bring together guests from 20 countries and will take place this Tuesday at the Palace of San Carlos, headquarters of this organization in the Colombian city of Bogotá, the capital of the country. capital.

In a press release published on the site, the MREC explains that in addition to Portugal, from Europe, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Norway, the United Kingdom and the High Representative of European Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, were also invited.

Argentina, Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, United States of America, Honduras, Mexico, San Vicente & Grenadines, South Africa and Turkey are other invited countries.

“Delegations began arriving in Colombia on Monday afternoon to meet today, April 25, around 11:00 a.m. (local time, 5:00 p.m. in Lisbon) at the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The installation of the meeting, by the President of the Republic, Gustavo Petro, will be broadcast in streaming”, he explains.

On April 15, Colombia announced that it had scheduled an international meeting for April 25, promoted by Colombian President Gustavo Petro, to promote the resumption of dialogue between the government and the Venezuelan opposition.

The announcement was made in New York by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Colombia, Álvaro Leyva, during a session of the UN Security Council, specifying that at this first meeting neither the Venezuelan government nor the opposition should not participate.

“We have resumed diplomatic relations with Venezuela and on the 25th of this month a conference will be held in the capital, (…) in Bogotá, with the countries of Latin America, which includes the United States, Canada and the European countries, to see how this can achieve the resumption of the political dialogues that had advanced in Mexico, between the opposition parties and President Maduro,” said Álvaro Leyva.

It is, he says, “a gesture of total peace”.

On January 18, 2023, the Venezuelan government made the resumption of dialogue with the opposition conditional on the return of the country’s assets blocked abroad and accused the United States of continuing to threaten Venezuela with new sanctions.

“If they don’t respect the return to the Venezuelan people of the $3.2 billion that they stole, that they took away, and that we made a deal for them to come back to, then there is no reason to continue the dialogue with the people who do not have a say,” said the head of the delegation representing the government at the dialogue table with the opposition, Jorge Rodríguez, during a session of the National Assembly, where Chavismo holds the majority.

On December 4, the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD), Venezuelan opposition, accused the government of seeking to “exit from the agreements” negotiated in Mexico.

“We want to denounce that the regime has activated a series of actions that seek to get out of the agreements,” the opposition said in a statement, stressing that it intended “to continue negotiations on political issues” and obtain the release of the “political prisoners”. , in addition to the return of “millions of families and exiles” to Venezuela.

On November 25, 2022, the Venezuelan government and opposition signed a second partial agreement on social protection in Mexico.

The agreement, which aims to release resources to help the most vulnerable populations, determines that the government and the opposition will have to cooperate in humanitarian expenditure, such as the payment of medical assistance projects or the repair of electricity networks.

According to the head of the opposition delegation, Gerardo Blyde, the resources would be channeled through a trust fund that would be designed and executed by the UN.

On November 31, Nicolás Maduro called for the release of the country’s frozen resources abroad and for “elections free from international sanctions”.

Washington replied that it would keep the sanctions policy intact until concrete steps were taken for the “return of democracy” in Venezuela.

GIF // RBF

By Impala News / Lusa

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