‘Time right for US-Venezuela dialogue’

With a new government coming to power in the US, a pro-Venezuelan campaigner has called for open dialogue between Washington and Caracas after months of civil unrest and economic stagnation that has forced thousands of Venezuelans to seek refuge in neighbouring Caribbean and South American nations.

David Denny, General Secretary for the Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration, told journalists Wednesday the incoming Joe Biden administration should be more than willing to have serious talks with the new assembly governing Venezuela since elections earlier this month.

Denny served as an international observer for the Venezuelan National Assembly Election held on December 6.

During a brief news conference on Wednesday at the Venezuelan Embassy, Denny said he saw first-hand fair and just polls, prompting him to make the call for dialogue. These new talks will also involve members of the Black Lives Matter movement in the US, he said.

Denny said: “In the future, they will be meeting with the President-Elect (Joe Biden) of The United States team, and they have had a series of meetings before the election, and that they expect to have after the election.

“The Black Lives Matter position is that this new administration should develop dialogue with the governments of Cuba and Venezuela, and that they should remove the political and economic embargos against [these countries].

“So for us, we are looking forward to that kind of movement, but as I have mentioned in the past, I would not ask people to celebrate as yet…we have to wait and see, but we will continue as progressive minded persons in the world to fight.”

Sanctions against Venezuela had dire effects not only on the economy but on the wellbeing of its citizens, Denny said, but he declared that the time is right for all Caribbean nations to join with Venezuela to foster mutual growth.

“The idea is not about us helping them build back up the economy, we are building a region that must be respected,” he told reporters. “We want to build a region that respects the rights of the Venezuelan people and then the rights of the Caribbean people, and where we can share resources, we will share resources.”

He added: “I want to say that the Venezuelan people had a democratic election and that election was endorsed by all of the persons who were in Venezuela, and these are persons who would have come from a whole set of different interest groups.

“There were there from United States, Canada, and all over the world, and all of us endorsed what took place in Venezuela and we saw that election as a democratic election.”

He also called on all of CARICOM to fully endorse the elections in order to help stabilize relations within the region. (SB)