Colombia president, US envoy meet in Venezuela

By Richard McColl

BOGOTA, Colombia (AA) – A top-ranking U.S. State Department official met with President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas on Wednesday in an attempt to reopen dialogues between the two nations.

“I have reiterated our interest that sooner rather than later we will be able to build an agenda of respect between the United States and Venezuela,” Maduro said after meeting with Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Tom Shannon.

Maduro has long called on President Barack Obama to change the stance the U.S. has maintained for eight years against Venezuela.

Tensions significantly worsened last March after Obama said Venezuela represented a “threat” to U.S. national security.

Shannon’s visit takes place at a time when food riots and violent looting have become a daily occurrence across the South African nation. And, a day before the Washington-based Organization of American States (OAS) will debate a proposal that could suspend Venezuela from the regional bloc.

“I think the purpose for this trip is to help foster a constructive dialogue that can hopefully lead to solutions to so many of the challenges facing Venezuela today – political, economic, social,” State Department spokesperson John Kirby said Wednesday from Washington. “And all of his meetings in Caracas were designed to help foster that kind of dialogue and to help generate some of those ideas, and I have no doubt that he’ll be sharing with President Maduro some of what he learned and some of what he heard while he’s been down there.”

Whether Shannon’s meeting with Maduro included conversations about the efforts to recall the Venezuelan president is not known but it is believed that the undersecretary met Venezuelan opposition leaders during his visit.

“I think, as the Secretary [John Kerry] said himself last week, the United States joins with others in the international community calling on Venezuela to release political prisoners, respect freedom of expression and assembly, alleviate shortages of food and medicine, and honor its own constitutional mechanisms, including fair and timely – including a fair and timely recall referendum,” Kirby said.

The relationship between the United States and Venezuela is often strained and since 2010 neither country has had ambassadors at their respective missions.

At an OAS meeting last week, Kerry confirmed Shannon’s visit and said both countries must “go beyond mere rhetoric.”

He added that the visit would represent a new calendar of meetings between the U.S. and Venezuela.