FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

Venezuela’s Maduro Offers Dialogue with Trump, but Warns Bolton Is Blocking It

Jan. 30, 2019 (EIRNS)—In an interview with Sputnik published Jan. 29, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said he is ready to talk with President Donald Trump, anywhere and at any time, to discuss any issue the U.S. President wants.

“I’ve sent him messages,” he said,

“but [National Security Adviser John] Bolton prevented Donald Trump from initiating a dialogue with Nicolas Maduro. ... I am ready to talk with Donald Trump personally. I’m convinced that if we meet in person, it would be a different story. But, I think they won’t give us a chance.”

Maduro labeled as “very infantile” and “clownish” the stunt that Bolton pulled yesterday when he appeared at a podium with a notepad on which he had written down “5,000 troops to Colombia,” suggesting a future U.S. military deployment. Bolton is acting as if he were the U.S. President, Maduro said. Colombian government officials have denied any such deployment.

Maduro also said he’s quite willing to hold new parliamentary elections, as this would provide a good opportunity to engage in a national dialogue. He declared that several governments and world organizations are calling for dialogue between the government and the opposition, and Maduro said he’s willing to hold such a dialogue anywhere, at any time and in any format. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, TASS reports, has said that Russia is willing to facilitate a dialogue between the Maduro government and the opposition, and is discussing this with China and European and Ibero-American nations. Thus far, he said, opposition leaders are reluctant to accept such initiatives, “encouraged by their Western sponsors.”

Spanish news service EFE reported late this afternoon that the governments of Mexico and Uruguay, neither of which recognizes the upstart Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s interim president, are convening an international conference to be held in Montevideo, Uruguay on Feb. 7, to discuss a diplomatic solution to the Venezuelan crisis. According to a press release by the Uruguayan Foreign Ministry, representatives from ten countries and international organizations will attend the conference.