Héctor Rodríguez, a member of the Bolivarian government’s delegation to the dialogue, reiterated today the commitment to the debate and requested the opposition to respect the agreements signed last year in Barbados.
“We once again maintain our position: we remain open to dialogue, we remain seated at the dialogue table,” Rodríguez said during a press conference in Caracas.
“We extend our hands, as we have done, to maintain the dialogue, to maintain the debate, to maintain the discussion,” he insisted.
The governor of the central state of Miranda made it clear that the government has complied with everything agreed upon in Barbados, however, he said that if something has not been fulfilled it is to stop violence, in this sense, he called on opposition sectors to reject this form of politics.
“If anything has not been fulfilled in the Barbados Agreement, which is what puts it at risk, it is the assassination attempts, because part of the Barbados agreements is the absolute commitment to renounce violence,” he recalled.
Héctor Rodríguez mentioned that, responsibly, the institutions of the South American nation have denounced that there are actors in Venezuelan politics linked to assassination attempts and coups d’état.
“Part of the Venezuelan opposition is still betting on violence and we will not allow that,” he emphasized.
Rodríguez said that the Verification Commission will soon be set up and the government delegation is ready to take the step.
“We are ready to do it and to move forward because on our part we are fully complying with what has been agreed,” he said.
In this case, he explained, what has been established by the parties is to build an expeditious mechanism that allows those who comply with Venezuelan law to participate in the elections.
He stressed that presidential elections will be held this year and it remains to “agree on when the dates of the elections will be, who the international observers will be, and how the audits will be carried out”.
“In Venezuela, there are going to be presidential elections this year, there are going to be presidential elections as stipulated in the constitution, there are going to be presidential elections with all the electoral guarantees,” he said.
