CARACAS, March 3 (NNN-TELESUR) — Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro held a meeting with government and opposition members of the national negotiating table at the executive’s Miraflores Palace Monday.
“We move forward with a firm and sustained step in the dialogue with the different political sectors of the country that contribute to reaching great agreements in order to strengthen democracy and peace for the Republic,” Maduro said after the meeting.
The main objective was to strengthen agreements for peaceful coexistence, according to a press release from the Ministry for Communication and Information.
Vice Presidents of Communication, Culture, and Tourism Jorge Rodriguez and of Territorial Socialism Aristobulo Isturiz, as well as the Governor of the state Miranda Hector Rodriguez, represented the government.
While, opposition leaders Henri Falcon, Luis Romero, Javier Bertucci, Claudio Fermin, Rafael Marin, Felipe Mujica, Segundo Menendez and Timoteo Zambrano in turn for the opposition sector.
The negotiating table between political factions is an initiative from President Maduro that was formed in September 2019 and has allowed agreements to be made to ensure healthy coexistence and stability in the South American nation.
The members of the political parties affirmed that the main goal is to make proposals to specific issues faced by the country hit by an economic crisis, mainly generated by the illegal economic blockade, unilaterally imposed by the United States since 2016.
A first-phase deal back in September 2019 resulted in the return of the parliamentary bloc of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and the Great Patriotic Pole (GPP) to the country’s National Assembly.
In November another agreement was reached which was a multiparty sub-commission formed in order to appoint a committee of candidacies for a new National Electoral Council (CNE).
In this regard, the president of the Solutions for Venezuela party Claudio Fermin reiterated Monday that both sides advocate the full inclusion and participation of the political sectors in order to produce a change in the CNE that contributes to “improving things.”
“The country wants elections with clear rules and better guarantees. We urge (parliamentarians) to pick up their pace because their delay causes damages to the country,” Fermin added referring to hindrances promoted by extremists sectors of the Venezuelan right.
Vice President Delcy Rodriguez recalled that they agreed on eight working groups, which will address the following topics: 1. Electoral power and electoral guarantees; 2. Truth commission; 3. Sovereignty and territorial integrity; 4. National Economy; 5. Institutional and political balance; 6. Social rights; 7. Political parties; 8. Social movements.
