By Orinoco Tribune staff on December 25, 2023 from Caracas
Recently released Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab (left) and Venezuelan far-right politician María Corina Machado (right). Photo: El Diario Tricolor.
Venezuela’s Deputy Minister of Anti-Blockade Policies William Castillo has stated that far-right politician María Corina Machado’s attempt to hide the opposition’s participation in the negotiations between the United States and the Venezuelan government to release kidnapped diplomat Alex Saab “is like eating without ingesting food.”
President Nicolás Maduro’s administration has recently achieved significant political victories, resulting in the release of Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab as well as the public recognition of President Nicolás Maduro by Gerardo Blyde, head of the opposition’s negotiation team in the Barbados Agreement (previously Mexico Talks). Since these victories, the Venezuelan far-right opposition has been trying to hide its participation in the release of Alex Saab.
For most Venezuelans, the liberation of Alex Saab is a victory of Chavismo against US imperialism. However, for supporters of the Venezuelan far-right opposition, it represents a significant defeat. No one in the Venezuelan opposition “leadership” seems to acknowledge their participation, not even indirectly, in Saab’s liberation. Yet Saab’s release was agreed upon in the complimentary agreements of the government-opposition dialogue in Barbados.
On December 21, Machado released a statement addressing the liberation of Alex Saab. The statement, full of far-right narratives against President Maduro’s administration and discussions of “political prisoners,” does recognize the opposition’s role in the Barbados agreements. Despite many parabolical zigzagging, Machado admitted that although she was not part of the negotiations between the US and the Venezuelan government, the opposition was involved in the liberation of Alex Saab “to contribute to achieving the objective of ‘free elections.’”
In response to Machado’s contradictory statement avoiding taking responsibility for the opposition’s actions, Minister Castillo wrote in a sarcastic Twitter post on Saturday, December 23, “We get involved without being part of it… It is like eating without ingesting food. Getting dressed without putting on clothes, and bathing without using soap and water.”
While Venezuela’s far-right opposition is unsuccessfully trying to find a path that might allow them to finally defeat Chavismo, the Maduro administration has scored significant political victories in recent months. These victories include the undisputable economic recovery of Venezuela, the Essequibo referendum, the Summit of Argyle (St. Vincent and the Grenadines) with the Guyanese president and, most recently, the liberation of Alex Saab.
Source: Orinoco Tribune