CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela said yesterday its foreign minister will meet United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in Geneva on Tuesday amid growing international calls for dialogue between political players to ease the OPEC nation’s worst unrest in a decade.
At least 17 people have died in violence during a month of opposition protests. President Nicolas Maduro says his foes are trying to trigger a coup, while his opponents accuse troops and pro-government militants of attacking demonstrators.
Appeals for the two camps to sit down for talks have poured in from leaders around the world, including in the United States, and from Pope Francis.
Venezuela’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Jorge Valero, said yesterday that the secretary general asked for a meeting with Foreign Minister Elias Jaua on Tuesday at the sidelines of a gathering of the UN Human Rights Council.
“He will have the opportunity to explain the policies for peace and promotion of dialogue that the government is pushing, and to denounce the terrorist plans that have been developing in Venezuela,” Valero told Noticias24 Radio in Caracas.
Maduro’s socialist administration blames what it calls opposition-led “fascist groups” for unrest the authorities say is aimed at triggering a coup like the one in 2002 that briefly ousted his mentor and predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez.
UN human rights commissioner Navi Pillay has called for an independent investigation into the recent deaths, and said on Friday that inflammatory rhetoric from both sides was unhelpful and risked escalating a tense situation.
“It is time for all sides to move beyond verbal aggression and towards meaningful dialogue,” Pillay said.
US Secretary of State John Kerry has said he is discussing with Colombia and other nations the possibility of international mediation in Venezuela.
To try to ease the crisis, Maduro has been holding talks with business and church leaders and some anti-government politicians, though the main opposition figures such as two-time presidential candidate Henrique Capriles have boycotted them.
They say they don’t want to provide the government with a “photo op,” though the 51-year-old president again offered on Friday to hold discussions with them – in public or private.
Opposition protesters are demanding that Maduro quit over grievances that include high inflation, shocking rate of violent crime, shortage of basic foods in stores, and what they call his heavy-handed repression of political rivals.
