Venezuela's Maduro, Opposition Spar in Crisis Talks
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and opposition leaders traded barbs during six hours of nationally televised talks that ended at dawn Friday, a rocky first attempt to end deadly anti-government protests.
Opposition leaders demanded amnesty for people arrested in two months of protests and the disarmament of radical pro-government civilian groups they accuse of terrorizing demonstrators.
Maduro rejected their demands, but the socialist leader invited his political rivals to another meeting on Tuesday.
The talks put the Venezuelan president in the same room as opposition leader Henrique Capriles, who refused to recognize his razor-thin defeat to Maduro in last year's presidential election.
But the more radical wing of the opposition, which is seeking Maduro's ouster through the street protests, was absent.
The protests have left 41 dead and 600 wounded, and prompted accusations of human rights violations by police.
After 15 years of socialist rule, protesters are denouncing rampant street crime, soaring inflation, poor job prospects and shortages of such essential goods as milk and toilet paper.
Maduro has branded the protesters as "fascists" leading a U.S.-backed plot to overthrow his government. Authorities have jailed three opposition leaders, accusing them of promoting the violence.
The Maduro administration held "peace conferences" aimed at ending the protests, but the opposition refused to attend the meetings, which they described as a sham.
The government and the opposition finally agreed to sit down at the same table at the insistence of foreign ministers of the UNASUR group of South American nations.
The foreign ministers of Ecuador, Brazil and Colombia attended the talks as "good faith witnesses," along with a Vatican envoy.
Maduro launched the talks with a one-hour introduction during which he railed against those seeking his ouster, warning there would be no negotiations "nor a pact."
The chosen political heir of late president Hugo Chavez urged the opposition to "condemn violence as a way of doing politics, as a form and strategy for changing governments."
Capriles warned that Venezuela was "in a deeply critical situation" but he insisted that he was not calling for Maduro's ouster.
"We don't want a coup d'etat or a social explosion," said Capriles, who last year gave the opposition its best election result since Chavez was elected in 1998.
"We want this problem to be resolved," he said, calling for the government to respect the constitution and "end the repression."
Ramon Aveledo, representative of the opposition umbrella group known as MUD, also demanded the government disarm pro-government civilian groups known as "colectivos."
Protesters say the colectivos are armed gangs that have terrorized demonstrators, but the groups describe themselves as social-welfare organizations that work to improve life in the slums.
"I ask for respect for the colectivos. Essentially, they are social work groups," Maduro said.
Luis Vicente Leon, a prominent pollster and analyst, said Maduro had "lost a great opportunity" to accept some of the opposition's demands in order to "raise hope in the dialogue."
Source: Agence France Presse
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