Rodríguez meets opposition negotiator Figuera after third round of Venezuela talks

A meeting after the third round

Acting president Delcy Rodríguez received the government's chief negotiator, Jorge Rodríguez, and the opposition coordinator Dinorah Figuera at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas on Thursday, 22 October. The meeting reviewed a third round of talks that ran for a week and included six working days, two plenary sessions and fifteen meetings. Figuera coordinated the National Assembly elected in 2015 and had been living in exile in Spain before returning to lead the opposition side. State broadcaster VTV showed images of the encounter, which was the first time the two women had met across the negotiating table.

After the meeting, Rodríguez said:

I greet and acknowledge the effort of the parties sitting at this dialogue table to advance on political guarantees for everyone.

What the talks agreed

The delegations agreed to begin a deep review of the political disqualifications that keep opposition leaders from standing in elections. A parity delegation will work to recover Venezuelan gold held at the Bank of England, and the funds will go to victims of the recent double earthquake. Negotiators also agreed to revise repressive laws, and work on reforming the so-called Law Against Hate is moving ahead, according to the US statement. Reconstruction of an independent Supreme Court is advancing toward the selection of 32 new judges. Access to more than 70 websites that had been blocked has been restored, and the US State Department says more than 1,000 political prisoners have been released since the contacts began.

Washington's position

The US State Department welcomed the close of this phase in a statement issued on 22 October. Spokesperson Thomas Pigott said the process, led by Venezuelans, was moving forward:

This process, led by Venezuelans, continues to strengthen democratic institutions, expand political freedoms and lay the groundwork for free, fair and credible elections.

Pigott said Washington will keep supporting the process as part of a three-phase plan promoted by Donald Trump, covering stabilisation, economic recovery and political reconciliation, with the aim of a peaceful democratic transition. Trump has said Venezuela is not ready for elections and has focused more on the country's oil. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been pushing the talks between the two opposition figures forward.

Rallies and arrests

Rodríguez also criticized the opposition marches led by María Corina Machado in several cities. She said a 'very small' group still resisted and accused it of trying to set the country alight by blocking streets. Vente Venezuela, Machado's party, said seven technical workers involved with the sound equipment at the rally had been arrested. Machado welcomed the turnout on her social media channels and framed it as the start of something larger:

We are a people determined to be free. And yes, this is what there is: just a sample of everything that is coming.

Machado remains in exile in Panama, and she says the interim government is blocking her return to Venezuela.

Open questions

The talks have not fixed a date for elections. Trump has praised Rodríguez, and Jorge Rodríguez serves in the government once led by Nicolás Maduro, who was seized in January in a US military assault and is now imprisoned in New York. The coming weeks will show whether the agreed reviews of disqualifications, laws and the judiciary translate into a timetable for a vote.