Diosdado Cabello denies having participated in secret talks with the United States

[Mr.Espinoza ♔♔♔]

 

Diosdado Cabello, president of the National Constituent Assembly and first vice president of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), denied Monday that he had held secret meetings with envoys from the United States Government to agree to a departure from the regime of Nicolás Maduro. "Do not ask me to confirm what you published against me, or me or your agency. Do not ask me because that is not healthy," the politician responded to an Associated Press (AP) journalist, who published the information meeting) this Monday at a press conference. "It looks like the agency wants me to legitimize what it took. [It's] a lie, a mani[CENSORED]tion."

According to AP published, last July the number two of Chavismo would have initiated dialogues in hiding with a person close to the White House in Caracas to discuss the possibility of facilitating a peaceful exit to the political crisis in which the South American country is located. The intermediary, who was not identified, said that Washington does not try to promote Cabello or facilitate the way to replace Maduro. "If you have confirmation, don't ask me, get the source. Anyway, you can write AP that the most important thing about these conversations is that there will be parliamentary elections, whether or not the Venezuelan opposition wants, before December 2020," he added. the head of the Constituent and strong man of the regime.

The Donald Trump Administration has explored endless alternatives to dethrone Maduro. In January, John Bolton, a White House security adviser, said they were considering granting an amnesty to the leaders if that allowed a peaceful transition to democracy in Venezuela. But the road to a change of government is tricky.

On April 30, the opposition was close to hitting a coup against Hugo Chavez's successor: that day, the president of the National Assembly, Juan Guaidó, who is recognized by fifty countries as head of state, ordered the release of Leopoldo López, founder of the Voluntad Po[CENSORED]r party, who had been detained since 2014 for his alleged responsibility for acts of violence in anti-government protests. He was released with the help of agents and even the director of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service, Manuel Cristopher Figuera, who is now in exile.

Guaidó also obtained the support of some military personnel, but the majority of the Armed Forces did not join the call for uprising. There was a plan for an institutional transition, which consisted of the approval of a ruling of the Supreme Court of Justice that facilitated the convening of presidential elections this year and recognized the Legislative. According to several of the sources consulted by EL PAÍS in May, Maikel Moreno, president of the Supreme; Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino; and the commander of the Presidential Guard, Iván Hernández Dala.

Cabello is a key record in the permanence of Chavismo in power. Its influence extends to military and economic sectors of the country. For months, political analysts have glimpsed their role in the militancy of the PSUV as an intention to replace the figure of Maduro, although he still does not have the support of the po[CENSORED]tion. Months later, he criticized a series of meetings between representatives of Maduro and Guaidó, sponsored by Norway, to carry out a dialogue.

With these credentials, the second on board of Chavismo is one of the most feared men in the regime for being ruthless with his adversaries and media: his television program With the mallet giving is a real wall. Sanctioned by the US and Switzerland, among other countries, he has also been accused of leading an alleged drug trafficking mafia and incurring acts of corruption. A report from the Armando.info portal revealed that the leader would have received bribes from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht - protagonist of a corrupt plot that has transcended the borders of several countries in the region - to finance his campaign for the governorship of the State of Miranda in 2008, although it lost due to its low acceptance among voters. A political change in Venezuela could leave it in the open.