VENEZUELA
Talk It Out
Hopes were high that talks between the Venezuelan government and the opposition would achieve some progress against the country’s long political and economic crisis on Tuesday. But the negotiations ended without a deal on how to hold fresh elections, even as US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sought to ramp up pressure on President Nicolas Maduro.
“We haven’t signed, nor will we, any agreement that isn’t dignified and worthy of the Venezuelan people,” the opposition’s delegation head Julio Borges told journalists around midnight. “At the end, it will be history and the Venezuelan people who will judge our actions.”
Talks will resume Wednesday, but Borges appeared to hold out little hope of a breakthrough, according to the Associated Press. And Maduro could well press ahead with a vote despite concerns that the government-controlled National Electoral Council cannot ensure free and fair polls.
Traveling through the region to marshal opposition to Maduro, Tillerson suggested Sunday in Argentina that the US is still considering “in effect prohibiting [Venezuelan] oil to be sold in the United States.”
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