- Mexican senior envoy was in Caracas
- Trip included meetings with government, opposition figures
Andreina Itriago Acosta and Nicolle Yapur, Bloomberg News
CARACAS
EnergiesNet.com 03 16 2022
A senior diplomat from Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, Efrain Guadarrama, met with Venezuelan government and opposition representatives in Caracas this week amid signs that the U.S. is willing to negotiate a loosening of sanctions on President Nicolas Maduro’s regime.
Guadarrama, who’s close to Mexican Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard, met with National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez, an ally of Maduro, and representatives from the opposition, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. He left on Tuesday afternoon after spending two days in the country, the people said, asking not to be named because the information isn’t public.
Guadarrama leads an agency working on Mexico’s cooperation with governments in the region. Last year, the administration of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador hosted multiple meetings in Mexico City between Venezuelan officials and the opposition to try to break a multiyear political impasse in the South American nation. Talks were suspended in October after the extradition of a close ally of Maduro to the U.S.
The visit, which wasn’t announced by Venezuelan or Mexican authorities, was mainly informative and with the intention that Guadarrama gathers first hand details of a rare meeting between Maduro’s administration and senior U.S. State Department officials earlier this month, two of the people said.
Read More: Sullivan Says Venezuela Sanctions Relief Needs ‘Concrete Steps’
Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Ministry and the President’s office didn’t reply to a request for comment, as neither did Venezuela’s Foreign Affairs Ministry.
bloomberg.com 03 15 2022
