The UN says it is willing to mediate in Venezuela if there is an agreement and request from all parties

United Nations, Aug 22 (EFE).- The UN is willing to mediate in the Venezuelan crisis “provided that all parties agree and request it,” said the spokesman for the general secretariat, Stéphane Dujarric.

At his daily press conference, Dujarric was asked about the possibility that the UN is participating in a more or less discreet way in some of the mediation initiatives taking place between the government of Nicolás Maduro and the supporters of Edmundo González, given that both claim victory in the presidential elections of last July 28.

“Our good offices are always available,” Dujarric replied, but added that they would only be carried out with the agreement of all parties.

So far, the UN’s only role in the disputed Venezuelan elections has been to send a panel of electoral experts invited by the government, who at the end of their mission were highly critical of the conduct of the presidential elections.

The panel’s interim report concluded that the Venezuelan presidential election lacked “basic measures of transparency and integrity that are essential to holding credible elections.”

A day later, Maduro’s government called the members of the UN group “false electoral experts” and accused them of spreading “a series of lies,” while the opposition said their document reinforces the thesis that supports the victory of opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia.

Venezuelan authorities have discredited both the UN panel’s report and the Carter Center’s allegations, despite both having been invited to observe the elections by the National Electoral Council.

Various countries such as Mexico, Brazil and Colombia are carrying out, with little results so far, a series of efforts to find a way out of the crisis through dialogue between the government and the opposition.

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