Guaidó confirms talks in Norway

Venezuela's opposition leader and interim president Juan Guaido, speaks during a press conference at his campaign office in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, May 14, 2019. Since declaring Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro as illegitimate, Guaidó has been in the midst of a power struggle with Maduro. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

Venezuela’s opposition leader, Juan Guaidó, confirmed that there have
been talks in Norway, but said the parties had not reached any
agreement to resolve the conflict.

‘’Delegations have been in Norway’’ Guaidó said at a press conference in Caracas on Thursday evening. He emphasised that no agreement had been reached, and he also denied that the parties had been in concrete negotiations.

‘’There have been no negotiations.

This is an attempt by Norway to mediate, something that has been
going on for months. This was the second invitation to Oslo. Everything else is speculation’’ Guaidó said to the newspaper, El Nacional.

During a political gathering in Caracas earlier on Thursday evening, Guaidó emphasised that the opposition will not enter into “false negotiations”.

Guaidó mentioned the invitation from Norway as “another initiative from a country that wants to cooperate”.

Will win time

The opposition has previously said that President Nicolás has used
negotiations to seek to win time and that he has previously not been
sincere with his concessions.

Venezuela’s UN ambassador, Jorge Valero also confirmed that there have been meetings in Oslo.

“I can confirm that there is dialogue, but I cannot go into detail” said Valero according to the BBC.

He said representatives of the government and the “democratic” part of the opposition participated.

‘’It is part of the opposition that is democratic, but then there is another part that are only puppets for the United States’’ he said further.

Conversations over several days

Anonymous sources have stated that conversations have taken place in a secret place in Oslo for “several days” and that the delegations were expected to return to Caracas on Thursday according to NRK news.

The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs would neither confirm nor deny the details.

‘’Over time, we have kept close contact with both parties.

We neither confirm nor deny Norwegian involvement in peace processes and dialogue initiatives’’ stated press spokesperson, Ingrid Kvammen Ekker of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to NTB news on Thursday.

She added that Norway is concerned about the situation in Venezuela and urged the parties to find a peaceful solution to the conflict.

Both sides participated

According to Venezuelan media, former MP, Gerardo Blyde and Fernando Martínez Mottola, who were ministers of Carlos Andrés Pérez’s government, were opposition representatives, as well as Stalin Gonzalez of the National Assembly.

Among the representatives of the government are information minister, Jorge Rodriguez. Nicolás Maduro had even stated that Rodriguez was at a “very important meeting” abroad.

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today

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