Versión Español
EspañolMembers of Venezuela’s opposition have come out against a plan for open dialogue with the government October 30.
President of the National Assembly Henry Ramos Allup and Governor of Miranda Henrique Capriles said they did not think dialogue would be beneficial if carried out in the way announced earlier this week.
“The opposition and the government are talking about a dialogue,” Capriles said through a live broadcast on Periscope. “What dialogue? In Venezuela they haven’t started a dialogue. They still haven’t started that process. The crisis will not be solved by sitting down and taking a photo. The crisis in Venezuela is deeper than that.”
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The plan for dialogue was announced by President of the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) President Jesus Torrealba. MUD is also planning march Wednesday, October 26 to protest the country’s poor economic conditions, as well as the government’s announcement that there would not be further collection of signatures for a recall referendum of President Nicolás Maduro.
One percent of the population’s signatures were collected earlier this year as the first step to initiating a recall, but the National Electoral Council stalled on carrying out the next phase — which would have been a collection of 20 percent of signatures — until ultimately canceling the effort altogether last week.
The push for dialogue, then, came as bitter sweet to many members of the opposition, who expressed doubt and suspicion of the usefulness of such a meeting.
Capriles questioned why the meeting would be held on Margarita Island. He said he believed the government is trying to hide something.
“We want dialogue, but it can’t happen the way we know Maduro wants it. He needs to respect the constitution when having a dialogue.”
“Rest assured that the Venezuelan opposition will not provide for what the opposition wants,” he continued. “One thing is having a dialogue with people that respect the constitution, and the other is dialogue with these devils.”
President of the National Assembly Henry Ramos Allup said that he learned about the dialogue idea through social media, and for that reason was not willing to participate.
“The Democratic Action Party has said that if the government wants the dialogues to be overseen by the Vatican,” he said, “we would agree to it. But now that we hear about it from TV and other places, we aren’t going to go.”
