Facing escalating international sanctions, Venezuela’s autocrat Nicolas Maduro is offering a new “dialogue” with the opposition and national elections at the end of 2018. But there are powerful reasons to suspect that Maduro is bluffing, and for continuing to escalate international pressures on him.
After violent anti-government protests that left more than 130 people dead in recent months and U.S. financial sanctions against top officials of his regime, Maduro called for a new “dialogue” with the opposition. Government envoys recently met with opposition leaders for exploratory talks in the Dominican Republic, and there are plans to invite a “group of friendly countries” — made up of Mexico, Chile, Bolivia and Nicaragua — to oversee formal negotiations that could start Sept. 27 in the Dominican Republic.
