# Caracas Sets 1 August Date For Talks With Venezuela's Opposition After Deadly Earthquakes

> Venezuela's interim government says it will begin formal talks with sections of the opposition from 1 August, six months after Nicolas Maduro's capture and weeks after twin earthquakes killed at least 4,734 people.

**Type:** article · **Category:** Latin America · **Published:** 2026-07-15 · **Source:** TrendKia
**Canonical:** https://trendkia.com/en/latin-america/bhuknpa-ki-tabahi-ke-bicha-venezuela-ki-sarakara-aura-vipaksha-1-august-se-batachita-ki-meja-para-baithenge-7886 · **Language:** English
**Tags:** Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, Delcy Rodriguez, Dinorah Figuera, Maria Corina Machado, Venezuela earthquake, Venezuela opposition talks

Venezuela's interim government has announced that it will begin formal negotiations with sections of the opposition starting on 1 August, a step that comes as the country is still reeling from a deadly natural disaster and more than six months of political upheaval. Jorge Rodriguez, the man representing the government at the table, has already held a preliminary meeting with opposition figure Dinorah Figuera, a former lawmaker, signalling that the two camps are moving past informal contact and into a structured process.

The announcement lands just over six months after United States troops seized Nicolas Maduro, who was Venezuela's leader at the time, in a dawn raid on the capital, Caracas, and flew him to New York to face drug trafficking charges. Since that operation, former Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, a Maduro loyalist, has run the country with the backing of the Trump administration. That arrangement has left much of the opposition frustrated, since many had expected Maduro's removal to be followed by a genuine change of government rather than continuity under another figure from his own political circle. The gap between that expectation and the reality of who is now governing helps explain why the announcement of talks is being watched so closely both inside Venezuela and abroad.

## Two statements, one plan
The plan for formal talks emerged in an unusual way, through two separate announcements that landed almost at the same time on Tuesday. One came from a coalition of opposition politicians. The other came from Jorge Rodriguez himself, who heads the government controlled National Assembly and is also the brother of interim president Delcy Rodriguez. The opposition's statement described the coming negotiations as an effort to lay down what it called "a route map towards democracy," language that suggests the talks are meant to be more than a symbolic gesture and are intended to produce concrete commitments rather than another round of stalled dialogue.

## Earthquakes push both sides to the table
Jorge Rodriguez's own statement was brief, and it pointed to a specific and painful trigger for the dialogue: the devastation caused by twin earthquakes that struck the north of Venezuela on 24 June. At least 4,734 people are already confirmed to have died in that disaster, and the death toll keeps climbing as rescue crews continue to pull bodies from the rubble of collapsed buildings. "Only through unity can we move forward with reconstruction and maintain peace," Rodriguez said in his statement, framing the talks as a practical necessity born out of a national emergency rather than a political concession to a long standing opposition demand.

The opposition's version of events was considerably more detailed. It pointed specifically to the support the United States has provided since the earthquakes struck, arguing that this assistance was proof that "Venezuela is not alone" on the world stage even as its government remains largely isolated diplomatically from much of the international community.

## Who is actually sitting at the table
The opposition delegation is made up of former lawmakers who were elected to the National Assembly back in 2015, the last occasion on which opposition parties actually won a majority in that legislative body. Every National Assembly election held since then has either been boycotted outright by opposition parties or widely dismissed by observers as neither free nor fair, as Maduro and his PSUV party steadily tightened their control over every branch of government in the years that followed. That history is part of why this delegation, drawn from a legislature elected a decade ago, still carries political weight as a credible negotiating partner.

Leading the opposition side is Dinorah Figuera, who only returned to Venezuela in June after spending almost eight years in exile. When she landed in Caracas, she told reporters that she had travelled back to her home country "on invitation from the [US] State Department," and that her aim was to push for the renewal of the National Electoral Council, commonly known as the CNE. That body has been dominated for years by staunch loyalists of the Maduro government. It was the CNE that declared Maduro the winner of the 2024 presidential election, even though voting tallies gathered by electoral observers and independently verified at the time showed an overwhelming victory for opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez instead. Renewing that council is therefore central to any opposition demand for a credible vote in the future.

## What the opposition says it wants
In its statement, released on Tuesday, the opposition coalition said the priority for the talks would be strengthening democratic institutions and the electoral system, along with securing guarantees for political participation going forward. That framing reflects years of hard experience. Opposition politicians and anyone who has openly criticised the Maduro government have faced persecution for a long time, with many jailed and many more forced to flee the country into exile.

Even though scores of political prisoners have been released since Maduro's ouster, the situation is far from resolved. According to a tally kept by the prisoners' rights group Foro Penal, 372 people remain behind bars as political detainees, a number that continues to weigh on any discussion of guarantees for political participation.

## Machado left on the outside
The most prominent opposition figure of all, Maria Corina Machado, has still not been able to return to Venezuela. She slipped out of the country secretly back in November to travel and receive the Nobel Peace Prize, awarded to her for her work promoting democracy. Despite dedicating that Nobel Prize to US President Donald Trump, his administration now appears to favour Dinorah Figuera over Machado as the person best placed to negotiate a democratic transition inside Venezuela, a shift that has not gone unnoticed within opposition ranks.

Machado did attempt to return to Venezuela shortly after the twin earthquakes struck, but she failed to make it into the country. President Trump has denied that his administration played any role in blocking her efforts to enter, but US media had earlier cited unnamed officials who described her attempted return as "potentially disruptive" to the rescue and reconstruction work underway after the earthquakes.

Machado herself has not yet commented publicly on the announcement of these formal talks. She has, however, called on the wider coalition of opposition parties that she leads to meet later on Wednesday specifically to discuss the development, suggesting internal opposition debate over how to respond to a process that, for now, is being led by a rival rather than by her.

## Questions & Answers

### 1. When will formal talks between Venezuela's government and opposition begin?
The talks are set to begin on 1 August.

### 2. Who is representing the government in the talks?
Jorge Rodriguez is representing the government; he heads the National Assembly and is the brother of interim president Delcy Rodriguez.

### 3. Who is leading the opposition side?
Former lawmaker Dinorah Figuera is leading the opposition delegation; she returned to Venezuela in June after nearly eight years in exile.

### 4. Why are the talks happening now?
They were triggered by the devastation of twin earthquakes that struck northern Venezuela on 24 June, which have killed at least 4,734 people so far.

### 5. What happened to Nicolas Maduro?
US troops seized him in a dawn raid on Caracas and flew him to New York to face drug trafficking charges.

### 6. Why hasn't Maria Corina Machado returned to Venezuela?
She left secretly in November and tried to return after the earthquakes but failed to enter the country; the exact reason is unclear, though US media reported officials called her return attempt disruptive to relief efforts.

### 7. How many political prisoners remain jailed in Venezuela?
According to prisoners' rights group Foro Penal, 372 people remain behind bars as political detainees.

### 8. What is the opposition's top priority in the talks?
The opposition says its priority is strengthening democratic institutions and the electoral system, including renewal of the National Electoral Council (CNE).

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