The celebration of the United Nations climate conference in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, has returned the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, to the family photo of the international community, which has obtained symbolic greetings from leaders who once repudiated his way of doing politics and prioritized relations with the opposition Juan Guaidó.
The Venezuelan government and the chavista media have disseminated in recent hours images of Maduro’s meetings with the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, and the prime minister of Portugal, Antonio Costa. Talks apparently improvised in the margins of the forum and in which the conversation was marked by a relaxed tone, with invitations from Maduro to Costa and Macron to travel to Venezuela.
«We have very good friends in common», says the Venezuelan leader to his French counterpart, who soon after expressed his willingness to continue talking in the future. France will host on Thursday and Friday the Paris Peace Forum, which will devote precisely part of its content to the situation in Venezuela.
Maduro confirms that the president of the National Assembly elected at the end of 2020, Jorge Rodríguez, will go to Paris and urges Macron to convey any message to him, to the extent that he has «absolute confidence» in his efforts. Rodriguez has already led the last failed negotiation attempts with the opposition.
The French meeting includes in its official agenda a «meeting between Venezuelan negotiators», behind closed doors, and among the attendees will be Latin American leaders, among them the President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, who has precisely re-launched diplomatic relations with Venezuela after years of political disputes.
The Latin American side will also be represented by the President of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, although sources of the Chilean Government consulted by Europa Press have clarified that Gabriel Boric will not be present, after speculation that a large meeting of leaders would be centered precisely on the situation in Venezuela.
Tacit» RECOGNITION OF MADURO The number two of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), Diosdado Cabello, has stressed that Maduro’s participation in COP27 represents «a tacit recognition» that he is the only president of the South American country, according to the newspaper ‘El Nacional’.
The ‘de facto’ reintegration of Maduro would imply degrading the Venezuelan opposition and, in particular, Guaidó, who in January 2019 proclaimed himself ‘president in charge’ claiming that, as head of the National Assembly elected in 2015, he headed the only Venezuelan institution elected in democratic elections.
Guaidó, in fact, has regretted that Maduro participates in this type of forums, «as he already did occupying a chair in the UN Human Rights Council» and has urged to review «the mechanisms of multilateral organizations that allow maintaining the presence of dictators and terrorists in these spaces».
Guaidó, who has urged Maduro to set a date for presidential elections as soon as possible and has promoted a primary process to choose a single candidate within the opposition, has strived in recent weeks to defend that his position remains the same as it was three years ago.
