Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro (right) shaking hands with former Prime Minister of Spain José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero at Miraflores Palace, Caracas, October 3, 2022. Photo: Presidential Press.
This Monday, October 3, the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, met with former head of the Spanish government, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, in Caracas’ Miraflores Palace.
Rodríguez Zapatero recently participated in a forum where he celebrated the fact that the United States is in dialogue with the president and the Venezuelan government. Rodríguez Zapatero expressed his support for Venezuela’s participation in the talks between the government of Colombia and the National Liberation Army (ELN).
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In this sense, the former Spanish president said that “getting the guerrilla group to renounce violence is a great objective” that will benefit citizens of both Colombia and Venezuela, especially in regard to their shared border, as it will cause “other violence to be reduced or disappear.”
Rodríguez Zapatero’s last visit to the South American country took place in the context of his participation as observer in the regional and municipal elections of November 21, 2021.
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“I hope that dialogue resumes after the elections,” Rodríguez Zapatero said at that time. “Democracy is a continuous dialogue.” At that time, during a press conference broadcast by Venezolana de Televisión, Rodríguez Zapatero was referring to the negotiations in Mexico between the Venezuelan government and the opposition under the mediation of Norway, suspended in October 2021 after the extraction of ambassador Alex Saab from Cape Verde to the United States.
The Venezuelan head of state has ratified the disposition of the Venezuelan government to establish a “frank and open dialogue” with sectors of the political opposition as the only way to guarantee national peace, and has stated that dialogue has been happening on Venezuelan territory since then.
The Venezuelan president was accompanied by the vice president, Delcy Rodríguez; the president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez; and the First Lady Cilia Flores.
(RedRadioVE) by Victoria Torres
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/SL
