Venezuela: Juan Guaidó asks Nicolas Maduro to hold elections in exchange for ending sanctions | Scientist

Guaidó is recognized as the interim president of Venezuela by 58 countries. Since 2019, he has refused to negotiate with Maduro.

“Venezuela needs a national rescue agreement, and it is an agreement that must be reached between the democratic forces and the actors that form and support the system and the international community,” Guaidó said in a video posted on social networks.

According to him, the commitment of the international community to achieving this recovery is “to provide incentives to the system, including the gradual lifting of sanctions, provided that these basic objectives of the agreement are achieved, of course.”

In his letter, Guaidó requested “an agreement that includes a timetable for free and fair elections: presidential, parliamentary, regional and municipal, with international oversight and support.”

He also proposed the “massive flow of humanitarian aid and vaccines against Covid-19”, which struck the country with a second malignant wave, and the release of all political prisoners.

Proposal after the appointment of new electoral authorities

The proposal, submitted after other failed attempts to negotiate, comes after Parliament, by a large government majority, appointed new electoral powers.

Maduro replied, “He (the silly) said today he wanted to talk.” “He was excluded, he was isolated and defeated,” the Venezuelan leader said.

“If he wants to join the dialogues that are already underway, which are developing on all issues, then welcome to him. He joins the dialogues that already exist, but he does not create the president, the supreme leader of a country that does not recognize you,” he said.

In August 2019, Maduro ended talks with the opposition, brokered by Norway, in response to economic sanctions imposed by the United States, the main international support for Guaidó.

After this approach failed, the Chavez leader, with the support of the armed forces and allies such as Russia and China, began dialogues with other sectors of the opposition.

In negotiating the nomination for the new National Electoral Council (CNE), it was agreed that opponents would be awarded two of the top five positions on the board of directors chaired by Maduro’s ex-minister, Pedro Calzadilla.

Guaidó criticized CNE’s “not recognized”, refusing to participate in this year’s regional and municipal elections, which was confirmed by Calzadilla this Tuesday in a press release, although no date has been set.

Calzadilla, along with the rest of the Board of Directors of the National Electoral Council, announced a “comprehensive audit” of the voter registry and the automated voting system used in Venezuela.

He also reported that the agency agreed to “review the state of disabilities” of political leaders and parties, which affect opposition leaders, such as two-time presidential candidate Henrique Capriles, who supported the National Electoral Council negotiations and previously favored the release of political prisoners.

“Plotting with dictatorship to legitimize each other as tyranny and sincere opposition to that tyranny, does not lead to freedom, but to submission and normalization of the worst tragedy that occurred in our country,” insisted Guaido, who led the opposition boycotting the 2018 presidential and 2020 parliamentary elections.

For political analyst Luis Vicente Leon, “it is natural for Guaidó to try to bring political debate back into his domain.”

The expert added, “It undoubtedly falls under a new request for global negotiations and links it to sanctions because it is the only pressure tool that the opposition seems to possess today, although it does not directly control it.”

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