The President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, stressed that during 2022, peace and dialogue with the opposition were consolidated.
In an interview granted this Sunday, January 1, to journalist Ignacio Ramonet, the head of state expressed: “There is not THE opposition or a single opposition in Venezuela. The first thing to understand is that in Venezuela there are several oppositions, and this process of fragmentation, creation and atomization of the opposition has occurred as a result of the extremist policies that were applied for four years, from the government of Donald Trump, to bring Venezuela to its knees.”
He assured that “this strategy imploded, as a product of the application of a policy out of reality. Trying to impose parallel governments in Venezuela, parallel powers that were not based nor had roots in reality. Therefore they did not understand and do not understand Venezuela, they do not understand the republican institutional strength of this Homeland, they do not understand the popular strength of the Bolivarian Revolution”.
He expressed: “From the US empire, and from some sectors of Europe, as well as from some right-wing governments in Latin America, they believed that the job was done. They decreed that there was a different president than the one the people elected.”
In this sense, he expressed: “Maduro is here, the product of a historical process, of a force, of a powerful civic-military union, with deep ideological, cultural, political roots. Not understanding that, they crashed, and as they crashed they broke into several pieces. So the first thing we have to say is that we are in dialogue with all the oppositions”.
Oppositions:
The president expressed that with the so-called Unitary Platform, “we have a conversation, a permanent dialogue, we have a negotiation and we have agreements. We have signed two agreements, between the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and that opposition Unitary Platform”.
He recalled that the last agreement signed is a social agreement, “(it was) very well worked, in detail, to recover 3.15 billion dollars frozen, seized in banks abroad. That money belongs to the Venezuelan State, to the Venezuelan society.”
For this reason, he recalled that a plan has been made to recover that money and invest it in public services that we need, in electricity, in water, in education, in health and in partly mitigating the damages from the torrential rains of 2022 “although that agreement is signed, there have been difficulties for the United States government to take the necessary steps to release those resources. I truly trust in the power of the given word, in the power of the signed word”.
Likewise, the Head of State maintained: “In 2022, we dinamized dialogue with all the oppositions, I had meetings in the Presidential Palace with the Democratic Alliance (rightwing), which brings together the general secretaries of the Acción Democrática, Copei (Social-Christian party – Copei), the Primero Venezuela party, the Cambiemos party, and the Avanzada Progresista party. Being the most voted in the last elections of governors and mayors that was held in Venezuela. With the Fuerza Vecinal party, which is a young group made up of some 40 mayors from around the country, we also met with them and received their criticism, their contributions, their proposals, we listened to each other, we talked at length. I also held a meeting with the leader Antonio Ecarri, of the Lápiz (Pencil) party, which brings together a group of educational, cultural, and social movements.
Permanent dialogue:
The president highlighted: “We are in a permanent, political dialogue, with all the economic sectors and with all the social and cultural sectors of the country. If something characterizes me as President of the Republic, at the forefront and in command of our Homeland, it is that I have always extended my hand, I have always been willing to listen, to dialogue, to converse with all sectors, and I believe that it is one of the keys that explains why in 2022, we have consolidated this climate of harmony, of peace, of coexistence that Venezuela has today”.
