Chavismo and the opposition approach positions to release frozen funds abroad

The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, last month in Caracas.MIGUEL GUTIERREZ (EFE)

The Chavista government and the Venezuelan opposition are close to reaching an agreement to execute a part of the funds that the country has in some international banks, frozen since the political crisis of 2019 and the imposition of international sanctions against the Government of Nicolás Maduro. That money, as agreed by the parties in November at the dialogue table in Mexico, would be used to address the country's social crisis.

The total amount is 3,000 million dollars in banks in the United Kingdom, the United States, Portugal and France. Even if the proposed agreements take hold, the total amount would not be immediately available. They could be released, in principle, about 500 or 600 million dollars. The money, says a source who preferred not to be identified, "is not going to solve the whole problem, but it would help a lot in the most urgent cases." "We already have a group of hospitals prioritized for investment," he says.

The negotiations are taking place within the framework of the so-called Social Agreement, one of the branches being discussed in Mexico, in dialogues that seek to avert the political crisis to hold fair elections in 2024 and that have been paralyzed since November. The slowness of the procedures of politics and the distrust between both parties exasperates the civil activists who participate in these talks, for whom the fundamental thing is that the money is invested once and for all in the social emergency of the country.

For the agreement to materialize, say sources close to him, the definitive approval of Nicolás Maduro is needed. Both the Venezuelan opposition and the United States, for their part, seem ready. In recent meetings, Chavismo raised the need for that money to be nationalized and enter the Central Bank of Venezuela, because these are, finally, assets of the republic. The Venezuelan opposition is radically opposed to this demand, arguing that widespread corruption would very quickly evaporate those resources without anyone giving explanations.

The foundations of the current agreement, which was signed last November in Mexico, foresee that the money will be administered by the United Nations, relying on instances such as the World Food Program, the Pan American Health Organization and UNICEF. According to sources close to the process, the United States has committed to mediate and take the necessary measures to protect these assets from legal action that some creditors may take.

In the map of investment priorities that was being discussed between the Venezuelan political factions and the entire environment of activists and volunteers who attend the crisis in the country is the investment in health, the reinforcement of vaccination plans – among the laggards in South America – and the payment of debts to the revolving fund of the Pan American Health Organization. Also money for education and child nutrition and resources to address the problems of electric service.

In recent weeks, Maduro had placed among his demands the release of these resources to give continuity to the rest of the negotiations in Mexico. Both Maduro and Jorge Rodríguez, one of the fundamental spokesmen of Chavismo, had complained bitterly about the delays in the release of the money, accusing the opposition of "not having a word and not being reliable people."

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