Venezuela’s Maduro says he is ready to meet “all the opposition” for dialogue, even Guaidó

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro asserted on Wednesday, May 12, that he is ready to meet “all the opposition”, when referring to the proposal made a day earlier by opposition leader Juan Guaidó to open negotiations under some preconditions.

“Well, I agree, with the help of the European Union (EU), the Government of Norway, the (international) Contact Group, when they want, where they want and how they want, (I am) ready to meet with the entire opposition, to see what comes out of it,” Maduro said in a government act broadcast by the State channel.

The President affirmed that he would analyze “if something good comes out” of that conversation, “and they abandon the path of war, invasion, attacks, coup d’état” and come “to the electoral path”.

“We are waiting for them here, on the electoral road, the proposal has been approved”, he stressed.

Before making the statement, the head of state pointed out that Guaidó went from a plan that “was the invasion of Venezuela to dialogue with Maduro”, and ironized by asking, “what do you think?”

“He wants to sit down with me, Guaidó, what will he bring in his hands, what trap will he bring, did they give him the order from the north?”, he wondered before assuring that the opposition “is a wimp from the north” and “they gave him the order” to negotiate.

Guaidó launched Tuesday a message in a video broadcast on his social networks in which he appealed to achieve a great agreement that “must emerge through a negotiation process between the legitimate democratic forces, the regime, and the international powers.”

In the same, he also advocated for “the commitment of the international community to achieve the recovery of Venezuela and offer incentives to the regime, including the progressive lifting of sanctions,” conditioned upon the fulfillment of the fundamental objectives of the agreement.

This same Wednesday, in a press conference, the opposition did not rule out Norway as a mediator in the negotiation. It confirmed that representatives of the Scandinavian country, which already attempted a similar process in the past, visited the nation this year on two occasions.