IACHR calls for dialogue between the government and the opposition in Venezuela to be “serious, broad and inclusive”.

IACHR calls for dialogue between the Government and the opposition in Venezuela to be “serious, broad and inclusive”.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), an OAS body, called on Monday for a “serious” dialogue between the government of Nicolás Maduro and the opposition in Venezuela and offered its collaboration in the talks initiated in Mexico.

“The IACHR calls on the different political actors in Venezuela to hold a serious, broad and inclusive dialogue for the urgent reconstruction of democratic institutionality with a view to guaranteeing human rights in that country,” it said in a statement.

In addition, “it places itself at the disposal of the parties to accompany the negotiation, as well as to provide technical assistance for the implementation of the commitments reached,” added this organ of the Organization of American States (OAS).

The IACHR, which in October 2019 installed a Special Follow-up Mechanism for Venezuela (MESEVE) in the face of what it considered a “serious human rights crisis,” reiterated that the South American country is experiencing “a profound crisis of democratic institutionality” with “absence of the rule of law.”

This “has facilitated the commission of serious human rights violations against people who make public their dissent with the government, as well as the deterioration of the living conditions of the general population, responsible for the forced migration of at least 5.6 million people since 2015,” he said.

Between August 13 and 15, representatives of Maduro’s government and the so-called Venezuela Unitary Platform, which groups the opposition, launched in Mexico City a new negotiation to put an end to the country’s acute political and economic crisis, according to a memorandum of understanding.

The talks in Mexico, initiated after the failed processes in Barbados in 2019 and the Dominican Republic in 2018, are facilitated by Norway, with accompaniment from the Netherlands and Russia.

The IACHR welcomed the involvement of the international community in seeking a way out of the crisis in Venezuela and asked in particular that those involved “not suffer reprisals of any nature” for participating.

In the midst of the first talks, Venezuelan authorities released former opposition congressman Freddy Guevara from prison, a little more than a month after he was charged with treason and terrorism, a step that the IACHR highlighted.

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