The Government and the opposition of Venezuela will return to explore the dialogue in Mexico

The government of Nicolás Maduro and the Venezuelan opposition will once again explore a path of dialogue in Mexico.

These days, the delegations are finalizing the details to start a new negotiation under the auspices of Norway and the Executive of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, sources familiar with the process have confirmed to EL PAÍS.

The central purpose of the round of talks is to prepare the ground for the presidential elections scheduled for 2024 and agree on elections with guarantees.

This is the second approach that is being tried in Mexico after the table was suddenly interrupted last year after the extradition to the United States of Alex Saab, accused by Washington of being a figurehead for Maduro.

Chavismo then left the meetings to try to pressure the Joe Biden Administration, but the negotiating missions had already defined an agenda of seven priorities that included the search for "electoral guarantees for all and an electoral schedule for observable elections."

As then, the delegations will be headed by two veteran politicians: Jorge Rodríguez, president of the National Assembly, will head the ruling bloc and Gerardo Blyde will speak on behalf of the majority opposition.

Diplomat Dag Nylander, director of the Norwegian Center for Conflict Resolution, will be one of those in charge of accompanying the talks.

A more official statement has also been added to the discreet preparations this Tuesday, contained in the joint declaration signed by Maduro himself and the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, in their first meeting since the reestablishment of relations between Bogotá and Caracas .

The document almost assumes that there will be a round of talks by expressing "the greatest success in the resumption of the dialogue table", for which the Colombian government also offers its support.

And it is expected, according to the sources consulted, that despite not having direct participation, the Andean country will play an important role as guarantor of possible agreements.

The diplomatic path that has fostered the contacts passes precisely through the White House and the State Department.

The climate of relaxation of economic sanctions after almost five years of escalation, the new concessions to Chevron and the exchange of two nephews of Maduro's wife, Cilia Flores, convicted of drug trafficking by a group of Americans imprisoned in Venezuela are part of this context.

And the way out of the serious social and political crisis in which the Caribbean country is plunged is one of the priorities of the United States in Latin America.

The first step of the new table will be, as on other occasions, a basic agreement on the rules of the game of the negotiations and then the phase of defining the calendar and the central issues will begin.

However, all the failed attempts for the Government and the opposition to come to an agreement, especially in electoral matters, anticipate a very delicate and complex process.

It happened first in 2016 in the dialogue promoted by the Vatican and later in the Dominican Republic or in Barbados, at the height of Juan Guaidó, who is now facing a stage of evident decline.

And again in Mexico City, where last year the parties seemed to have cleared a path for a principle of understanding.

The actors involved are now trying again.

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