“pardon and amnesty” if he leaves power –

Amnesty if Nicolas Maduro leaves power. This is the plan Washington is working on to stop the regime’s purges and the chaos in Venezuela after the elections. “The United States is trying to pressure Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to step down in exchange for an amnesty, as overwhelming evidence emerges that the strongman lost last month’s election,” writes the Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with the matter. The United States, the newspaper points out, “has discussed pardons for Maduro and his top lieutenants who have been indicted by the Justice Department, three people familiar with the Biden administration’s decisions said. One of those people said the United States has put ‘everything on the table’ to convince Maduro to leave the country before his term expires in January.”

In short, a safe conduct to give the South American country a new future. Another source familiar with the talks told the WSJ that the United States “would be willing to provide guarantees not to prosecute the main exponents of the regime.”

In 2020, the United States offered a $15 million reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest. The talks, the US newspaper notes, “represent a glimmer of hope for Venezuela’s political opposition, which has meticulously collected election results that would show that its candidate, former diplomat Edmundo González, defeated Maduro in a landslide victory in the July 28 elections. In the past two weeks, Maduro has imprisoned thousands of dissidents and tasked the Supreme Court, made up of his allies, with resolving the electoral impasse, buying time.” The United States, the WSJ writes, “had made an offer of amnesty to Maduro during secret talks in Doha last year, but the Venezuelan president refused to discuss deals in which he would have to relinquish power. A person close to the regime said Maduro’s position has not changed, for now.”