Venezuelan government, opposition delegation begin talks

Aug 6 (Reuters) – U.S.-backed negotiations between Venezuela’s interim government and a faction of the opposition began on Thursday afternoon, the two sides said, after nearly a week of delays.

The talks are aimed at remaking the country’s political system ahead of eventual elections. 

• Jorge Rodriguez, brother of interim President Delcy Rodriguez, is leading the government delegation. He is also head of the National Assembly and a longtime negotiator at previous talks with the U.S. and the opposition.

• His counterpart Dinorah Figuera is the head of an opposition-dominated National Assembly cohort elected in 2015 which is still recognized by the U.S. as the country’s last democratically elected legislature.

• “Today we launched the process that will chart the path toward democracy and the re-institutionalization of Venezuela,” Figuera said in a post on X.

• The first round of talks will go through August 12, when the parties will decide whether to continue, both sides said.

• The State Department also hailed the effort at starting negotiations.

• To the chagrin of some Venezuela observers, Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado, the country’s most popular opposition figure, is not participating in the talks.

• Machado has said she will not stand in the way of progress at the negotiations.

(Reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb, Editing by Daina Beth Solomon and Chris Reese)