Jorge Rodríguez, president of Venezuela's ruling National Assembly, confirmed on August 1 that he held a phone call with Dinorah Figuera, president of the opposition-aligned National Assembly elected in 2015, to agree on the start of a political dialogue between both sides.
In a written statement, Rodríguez said the call's purpose was to coordinate the beginning of a process described as 'inclusive and effective' and to align efforts on aid for victims of the double earthquake recorded on June 24.
According to the statement, both parties exchanged the composition of their respective delegations during the call and agreed to hold a first in-person meeting in Caracas the following week. They also defined a working agenda with, in Rodríguez's words, 'clear and verifiable goals.'
The first presential session will address three priority items: attention to earthquake victims, the strengthening of democracy, and political rights and guarantees.
Rodríguez also disclosed the government's negotiating team. He will serve as coordinator, joined by Ana María San Juan, Jorge Arreaza, América Pérez, Genesis Garvett, and Pedro Infante.
The announcement lands against a backdrop of notable skepticism. Related reporting from El Nacional notes that some chavista sectors are openly rejecting the dialogue, while a separate piece describes the negotiation — said to be tutored by the United States and conducted without María Corina Machado — as starting 'amid skepticism and uncertainty.'
Voltage take: A phone call and a date on the calendar are not a negotiation. Maduro's government has run this play before — announce dialogue, extract sanctions relief or legitimacy, exit when convenient. The three-point agenda is carefully constructed: leading with earthquake victims is politically unassailable, which is precisely why it makes a useful shield for the harder items behind it. The real test is whether 'clear and verifiable goals' means anything when the referee, the courts, and the security apparatus all answer to the same address. Free enterprise and political pluralism in Venezuela will not be restored by a press release. They require enforceable commitments — and those are conspicuously absent from what was announced.
