Venezuela dialogue 'dead' after opposition leaves table

By Senabri Silvestre

SANTO DOMINGO, Dom. Rep.

Venezuelan’s efforts towards national dialogue appear to be falling by the wayside amid a severe eco-political crisis.

The opposition has expressed discontent with the ongoing talks with government representatives, deciding to move away from the table earlier this week.

President of the National Assembly, Henry Ramos Allup, said Thursday that the dialogue effort was “absolutely dead”.

The Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) decided Tuesday not to participate in future meetings until the government complies with the agreements reached in previous encounters.

The party refers, among other things, to the release of political prisoners, respect for the autonomy of the National Assembly, and the need for setting up an electoral timetable.

“We will maintain our relationship only with the mediators and especially with the Vatican, in order to follow up on compliance with what has already been agreed", the MUD’s executive secretary Jesus Torrealba announced on local radio.

The dialogue was initiated at the end of October to resolve a host of issues plaguing Venezuela, including lack of basic food and medicine supplies and a failing economy at large that suffered in recent years for being too oil-dependent.

The two sides met separately on Tuesday with the mediators’ team, headed by the Vatican representative Claudio Maria Celli and four former Latin American presidents.

Mediators will offer strategies to continue the rapprochement between the ruling party and the opposition, and work to define a new electoral timetable, Celli said, according to local media.

Venezuela’s government and the opposition agreed last month to work on a road map to normalize the constitutional relationship between the powers of the state, but the effort has been marred by a campaign of public disqualifications.

President Nicolas Maduro has been at the receiving end of caustic criticism for the crises, and the opposition sought a recall vote to oust him, which was suspended by a court decision.