A banner reading "Paris Peace Forum, de Paris sur la paix," displayed at the forum. File photo.
Caracas, November 10, 2022 (OrinocoTribune.com)—The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, has announced that the president of the National Assembly (AN), Jorge Rodríguez, will reach Paris, France, in the next few hours, where he will participate in the Paris Peace Forum. President Maduro had briefly talked about the forum after French President Emmanuel Macron had approached him in the sidelines of the COP27 Conference in Egypt.
“Jorge Rodríguez Gómez, who will be arriving in Paris, is going to a meeting with President Emmanuel Macron, and several Latin American presidents to talk about peace, about the Venezuela of the future,” the president said on Thursday, November 10, during the inauguration ceremony of the 18th edition of International Book Fair of Venezuela (FILVEN).
On Thursday itself, the opposition block Unitary Platform reported on the invitation made by the president of France, asking them to attend the forum to be held in Paris this Friday, November 11. According to the opposition coalition, the coordinator of the negotiation team in the Mexico Talks, Gerardo Blyde, will attend the meeting, along with other right-wing politicians.
According to several news agencies, the meeting will help resume the dialogue between the government of President Maduro and the Venezuelan opposition, a dialogue that was suspended in October last year after the US authorities kidnapped the Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab from Cape Verde. Although the delegations have not confirmed it, a “private” meeting between the Venezuelan negotiators appears to be on the agenda of Friday’s fifth edition of the Paris Forum for Peace.
Last week, several sources close to the process reported that the negotiations between the opposition and the Venezuelan government in Mexico, known as the Mexico Talks, would restart in a few days. The Mexico Talks were facilitated by the Kingdom of Norway and the Russian Federation.
Opposition announces national commission for primary elections
In parallel, on Wednesday, November 9, the Unitary Platform, the far-right opposition block involving former deputy Juan Guaidó and the G4 parties, announced the names of the people who will make up the National Primary Commission, which will be the “entity in charge of organizing and executing” the opposition primaries, expected to be held towards the end of 2023.
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Anti-Chavista analyst Luis Vicente León, in an interview on Unión Radio the same day, explained that the commission’s work will be very delicate, as it might have to deal with the decision of which opposition candidate can run in the primaries, and which people cannot.
Some opposition politicians in Venezuela consider the G4 as the quintessence of the Venezuelan opposition, when in reality there are at least two significant opposition groups that do not associate directly with G4 and that have gained relevance because they have chosen the electoral way, contrary to the pro-abstention stand of the G4 that also advocated for harsh US sanctions against the Venezuelan people.
The Unitary Platform announced in a statement that the commission was formed “after a broad process of consultation and analysis with various sectors of the Venezuelan society.”
Plataforma Unitaria Democrática presenta a ciudadanos que conforman la Comisión Nacional de Primaria. #9Nov pic.twitter.com/JDIScRGq0O
— Unidad Venezuela (@unidadvenezuela) November 9, 2022
The members of the commission are: Principal member, María Carolina Uzcátegui; Substitute, Mildred Camero; Principal member, Jesús María Casal; Substitute, Rafael Arraiz Lucca; Principal member, Corina Yoris; Substitute, Guillermo Tell; Principal member, Carmen Martínez de Grijalva; Substitute, Víctor Márquez; Principal member, Ismael Pérez Vigil; Substitute, Roberto Abdul.
According to the editor of Orinoco Tribune, Jesús Rodríguez-Espinoza, “All the members belong to the Venezuelan oligarchy. Needless to say that they are also far right in their political views, meaning they might not be open to look for the much needed space for unity that is the main objective of the primaries.”
“The resumption of the Mexico Talks might be the space for the opposition to push for some of their banned candidates to be pardoned and thus be able to run in the primaries, but they will have to deal with how to reverse the diplomatic aberration of having Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab in a jail in the state of Florida,” he added.
Most analysts agree that if the opposition is not able to achieve a coherent unity, it will be extremely difficult for them to defeat Nicolás Maduro, who, despite not having the highest approval ratings that Hugo Chávez had, is currently the political leader with the highest approval overall in the Venezuelan political arena. “Additionally the opposition will have to deal with an undeniable economic recovery and a very solid party machinery that the PSUV provides,” the Orinoco Tribune editor pointed out.
Orinoco Tribune Special by staff
OT/JRE/SC
