“We made this decision after a difficult process of internal deliberations,” said a statement from the “Plataforma Unitaria” on Tuesday (local time).
President Nicolás Maduro congratulated the opposition on their decision. “I’ll sit down in my armchair with the TV on, with my popcorn, to see Juan Guaidó vote on November 21,” said the authoritarian head of state on VTV. “And I’ll applaud because we managed to get him back into democracy.”
In the group around Guaidó there are various Venezuelan opposition parties such as “Primero Justicia” and “Voluntad Popular”. In a few days’ time, the government and opposition want to resume the dialogue that began in Mexico in mid-August in the conflict that has been going on for years. The opposition is demanding free elections and the release of political prisoners, the socialist government is striving to ease international sanctions. In the 2018 presidential election, for example, from which the authoritarian head of state Maduro emerged victorious, the opposition did not take part, arguing that it was not free and fair.
Venezuela is in a deep political, economic and humanitarian crisis. Opposition leader Guaidó declared himself interim president in early 2019 and has since tried to force Maduro out of office. Although he received a lot of support from abroad, he was unable to assert himself in Venezuela. Around 5.6 million Venezuelans have left their homes in the face of poverty and violence.