The opposition is negotiating with the autocrat – with US benevolence and a squint at the country’s oil wealth.
Skepticism is appropriate when Venezuela’s government sits down at a negotiating table with the opposition. In the last eight years, four attempts at talks have taken place – all failed. Last left President Nicolas Maduro Last year, a round of talks broke up in Mexico following the United States put on trial the very wealthy Colombian businessman Alex Saab, whom the US authorities see as Maduro’s straw man.
Now Mexico is the scene of another attempt to improve the disastrous situation of what was once the wealthiest country in South America. This time, this promises more than cloudy announcements. Right at the beginning, both sides announced an agreement that had been negotiated in months of preliminary talks, which is intended to release assets of the Venezuelan state that have been frozen abroad. The government claims up to $5 billion is blocked by the US and its allies’ embargo. Alone in the Bank of England are said to store 31 tons of Venezuelan gold bars. Now a large part of this money is to be transferred to a fund to alleviate the emergency situation in the country.