Caracas .– Venezuelan opposition leaders María Corina Machado and Edmundo González Urrutia said this Sunday that they hope the dialogue between Chavismo and an opposition group, which will begin next Saturday, August 1, will achieve, among other objectives, a “timely presidential electoral schedule.”
In a statement, they assured that they will evaluate that process “based on concrete and verifiable achievements: the recovery of democratic institutions, the release of all political prisoners, real guarantees for all actors without exclusions, a timely presidential electoral schedule, and full respect for popular sovereignty.”
“That is what our people demand and that is what we will be attentive to,” stated Machado and González Urrutia, who said they will not be “an obstacle to any initiative that produces real progress.”
Furthermore, they clarified that they did not participate in the “design, construction, and operation” of that dialogue channel, led by the President of Parliament, the Chavista Jorge Rodríguez, and the former opposition deputy Dinorah Figuera, whom they demanded to inform the country of “their objectives, their method, and their schedule.”
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Return to Venezuela
In the text, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and the opposition leader, who recently met with the largest opposition coalition, the Unitary Democratic Platform (PUD), to evaluate that upcoming dialogue, announced, without giving details, that they will return to Venezuela to “accompany the people, travel the country, and build” a national agreement for reconstruction.
Machado and González Urrutia pointed out that the oil-rich nation “is devastated by more than a quarter of a century of a regime that looted and repressed the people” and that the recent earthquakes “have cruelly increased the devastation.”
“Amidst this pain, Venezuelans saw with their own eyes how the aid that the people themselves organized was attempted to be blocked, diverted, and controlled so that it would not reach those who needed it most. Rebuilding what was destroyed and accompanying the families who lost everything is not just an administrative task. A new government with moral authority and managerial capacity is needed,” they expressed.
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The beginning of the dialogue between Chavismo and the opposition
The conversations between Figuera and the brother of the acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, had begun on June 18, shortly before the earthquakes.
As the parties later explained, the process will be initiated to promote democracy in Venezuela, which is still suffering the consequences of the double earthquake of June 24, which left more than 5,500 dead, at least 16,740 injured, nearly 18,000 people homeless, and significant material damage.
Figuera, who defends the continuity of the Parliament elected in 2015 and which was controlled by the opposition, said last Thursday that Machado is “very important in this process”.
The Nobel laureate, who is currently outside of Venezuela and has reported obstacles to entering the country, has insisted that she has “the responsibility to lead” a negotiation with Delcy Rodríguez’s government for a timely presidential electoral schedule.
In a statement, they assured that they will evaluate that process “based on concrete and verifiable achievements: the recovery of democratic institutions, the release of all political prisoners, real guarantees for all actors without exclusions, a timely presidential electoral schedule, and full respect for popular sovereignty.”
