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Since 2017, the centerpiece of the Maduro government’s political strategy has been to divide the opposition by presenting it with a dilemma: participate in or abstain from unfair elections. It has done this by artfully constructing elections so that conditions are...
The Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign is impacting Venezuelan citizens, restricting their alternatives in ever evolving ways. On May 19, U.S. telecommunications giant AT&T announced it would be discontinuing DIRECTV service to Venezuela because it...
So far there has been no official response from Guaidó. He first had said the incursion was a staged fake, then acknowledged it was real but said they had no part in it. Now he will have to calm widespread discontent within the opposition and its allies, as well as calls for accountability.
Rector of the Ándres Bello Catholic University Francisco Jose Virtuoso, S.J., said “a humanitarian agreement in Venezuela is urgent.” He argued that the current Venezuelan crisis is an accumulation of various problems in almost all areas of the life in Venezuela that have worsened with the COVID-19 pandemic, and he is calling for an urgent political and humanitarian agreement.
News of secret negotiations and Norwegian involvement periodically emerges, generating expectations. However, insiders suggest that backchannel contact between the Guaidó and Maduro governments is frequent and that Norwegian diplomats have never stopped their contact with each side, despite formal talks being suspended in September. Given the way the COVID-19 pandemic is changing conditions, contacts solidifying into talks is always a possibility.
With countries across the world struggling to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, Venezuela is no exception. In recent days, both the Maduro government and the opposition have announced new measures to respond to the looming health crisis. Maduro, for his part, has...
Venezuela is now suffering severe gasoline shortages as the United States has cracked-down on fuel-for-oil swaps as part of its “maximum pressure” campaign. While Venezuela once refined all of its gasoline and even exported it, over the past ten years it has become...
This is essentially the same proposal that was being discussed last summer as part of the Norwegian-mediated negotiations, with one big difference. Coming less than a week after indicting the heads of every major branch of the Maduro government, it would seem the Trump Administration is trying to hard-wire who they think should not be part of a transition. This was a main point of contention during last summer’s negotiations with the U.S. reluctant to endorse any transition plan that allowed Maduro to preside over new elections.
A multitude of voices have suggested the need for sanctions relief or international support for Venezuela, given the vulnerability of its population and health system to the COVID-19 pandemic. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet,...
Disasters are always a challenge but frequently provide authoritarian governments with opportunities as the de facto power they wield suddenly becomes much more important to the population and its neighbors. Maduro has indeed been able seize the political spotlight from Juan Guaidó and gain some implicit international recognition from Colombia.