President Nicolas Maduro has accepted a proposal by the opposition to
ask the Vatican to facilitate dialogue with Venezuela’s socialist
government.
The Union of South American Nations’ Secretary General Ernesto Samper
met late on Thursday with Maduro and afterward announced that he would
ask Pope Francis to send a representative to Venezuela. Samper was in
Caracas along with former Spanish President Jose Luiz Rodriguez Zapatero
in an effort to revive a two-month-old attempt to bring the sides
together to resolve the country’s economic and political crisis.
The opposition has pushed for Pope Francis’s intervention but also
conditions its support for dialogue on the release of people it
considers political prisoners and a commitment by Maduro to hold a
recall referendum this year.
Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, said on Friday
that “in the past, the Holy See has manifested its willingness, in case
the basis is there for its contribution to the dialogue.”
He added: “However, at the moment, no formal communication has
reached the Nunciature or the Secretariat of State spelling out the
substance and details of such a request.” Catholic Herald
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