Venezuela government, opposition mediation talks flounder
By Alexandra Ulmer and Andreina Aponte
CARACAS (Reuters) - Mediation talks between Venezuela's government and opposition have collapsed after their failure to reach agreement over conditions for a presidential election, host Danilo Medina, the president of the Dominican Republic, said on Wednesday.
Venezuela's ruling socialists have said a vote will be held before the end of April, with incumbent President Nicolas Maduro running for re-election in the oil-rich nation despite his unpopularity and a crushing economic crisis.
The talks' end fuelled expectations that authorities would quickly set a date for a controversial election in which Maduro's two top political rivals are barred from participating.
The opposition had been lobbying to hold the elections on June 10, Medina said, to give its disparate and often conflicting parties time to hold primaries and settle on one candidate. The government, meanwhile, pushed for the vote to be as soon as March 8.
A compromise had been reached for the election to be held on April 22, the Dominican president said, before the talks broke down and the government delegation left on Tuesday night.
"Talks have entered a sort of indefinite recess ... No conflict in the world has been resolved without dialogue," said Medina, who had been hosting meetings with delegations in the Caribbean nation and urged them to return to the table.
Opponents say the government is rigging the vote in advance by barring Maduro's strongest rivals - opposition leaders Leopoldo Lopez and Henrique Capriles - and failing to reform a compliant national election board.
Opposition delegation leader Julio Borges blamed the government for intransigence in denying fair conditions for an election and warned the government from "unilaterally" setting a snap election.
"Nicolas Maduro does not own democracy in Venezuela," said Borges from Santo Domingo.
There was no immediate reaction from the government.
Officials say they are fighting a U.S.-led conspiracy determined to end socialism in Latin America, hobble Venezuela's economy, and steal its oil wealth.
Venezuela's opposition, which brought hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets last year in an attempt to force early elections to remove Maduro, is in a quandary.
The most militant of government opponents believe it is useless to fight the socialists at the polls, given the election board - whose head is on U.S. and European Union sanctions lists - favours the government and turns a blind eye to use of state resources for campaign purposes.
Other supporters feel they have to keep up pressure on the government by voting, but the coalition is increasingly demoralized as Maduro tightens his grip and emigration becomes the preferred escape valve.
(Additional reporting by Vivian Sequera; writing by Andrew Cawthorne and Alexandra Ulmer; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Lisa Shumaker)
