By Daphne Psaledakis and Matt Spetalnick
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Biden administration remains open to dialogue with the Venezuelan government, U.S. officials said on Tuesday, after President Nicolas Maduro said he had agreed to resume direct talks, just weeks before Venezuela’s July 28 presidential election.
The officials said the US had previously indicated it welcomed talks “in good faith” but would not confirm Maduro’s statement late Monday that a meeting was planned in the coming days.
The socialist president is seeking a third term amid concerns in Washington over whether he will deliver on his promises to hold free and fair elections. Western governments have dismissed his 2018 re-election as a sham.
Maduro now faces Edmundo Gonzalez, a veteran ex-diplomat who was named the main opposition candidate after the Supreme Court banned the primary winner, Maria Corina Machado, from holding office, a decision condemned at the time by the US.
Machado has now endorsed Gonzalez and has built up a large lead over Maduro in the polls.
In mid-April, the US reimposed oil sanctions on OPEC member Venezuela, alleging that Maduro had not fully adhered to the election guarantees he had agreed to in agreements with the opposition.
Maduro said on a television program that he had accepted Washington’s proposal to resume talks with the US “to comply with the agreements signed in Qatar and restore the conditions of dialogue with respect.”
Secret negotiations between the US and Venezuela in Qatar late last year helped Maduro call elections this month.
“I won’t go into the details of our diplomatic relationship other than to say that in the context of Venezuela — you’ve heard us say this before — we are of course happy to engage in good faith dialogue and we support the desire of the Venezuelan people for competitive and inclusive elections on July 28,” said U.S. State Department spokesman Vedant Patel.
“We recognize that democratic change will not be easy and will certainly require serious commitment,” Patel told a daily briefing in Washington.
Venezuelan official negotiator and National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez will participate in the talks, Maduro said, without elaborating on the specific topics that will be discussed.
It was not immediately known whether the meeting would be in person or virtual. An earlier meeting between senior U.S. officials and Maduro’s representatives took place in Mexico in mid-April.
(Reporting by Matt Spetalnick and Daphne Psaledakis in Washington; additional reporting by Vivian Sequera in Caracas; editing by Mark Heinrich)
