Jorge Rodriguez and Dinorah Figuera are leading delayed negotiations aimed at reshaping Venezuela's political system ahead of eventual elections, while Maria Corina Machado remains outside the process.
U.S.-backed negotiations between Venezuela's interim government and an opposition faction linked to the 2015 National Assembly began in Caracas on Thursday afternoon after nearly a week of delays, with the sides seeking to remake the country's political system ahead of eventual elections. Jorge Rodriguez, brother of interim President Delcy Rodriguez and head of the National Assembly, is leading the government delegation, while Dinorah Figuera heads the opposition-dominated 2015 National Assembly cohort that Washington still recognizes as Venezuela's last democratically elected legislature. The State Department hailed the start of the talks and has framed them as a chance to widen political freedoms, address needs after the June 24 earthquakes and advance a peaceful transition. Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado, the country's most popular opposition figure, is not participating, though she has said she will not stand in the way of progress at the negotiations.