Venezuela’s government made no demand for the release of former president Nicolás Maduro during nearly two weeks of negotiations with the opposition this month, in what the Financial Times described as the clearest indication yet that the government may have abandoned the jailed former leader to the US justice system.
The omission marks a notable change for interim president Delcy Rodríguez. In January, Rodríguez condemned the US capture and removal of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, as a case of “vile aggression”. Her brother, who leads Venezuela’s parliament, also said they “will not rest” until Maduro was released from the Brooklyn jail where he faces drug-trafficking charges.
But according to several people present at the five negotiating sessions, which concluded last week, Rodríguez’s US-backed government did not raise the issue of Maduro or Flores with the opposition. “Maduro and Flores simply do not exist at the negotiating table,” one opposition figure told the Financial Times. “They have erased them from history.”
The United States has backed Rodríguez, Maduro’s vice-president, since US commandos captured the former leader during a night-time raid on January 3. In return, Rodríguez has opened Venezuela’s natural resources to overseas investors, giving US companies access to the country’s oil reserves.
The first round of negotiations was intended to establish steps towards a new presidential election, but produced few concrete results. Instead, the government and opposition concentrated on practical issues surrounding Venezuela’s recovery, particularly the financing of reconstruction following June’s devastating earthquakes.
A central issue was the potential repatriation of around $4 billion in gold bullion held in the vaults of the Bank of England. The two sides also agreed to begin work on reforming Venezuela’s justice system.
Following the negotiations, the government announced that it had released 131 political prisoners. Human rights organisation Foro Penal said it could verify the release of at least 78 people.
Maduro, however, appeared to have been excluded from any comparable effort. Analysts cited by the Financial Times said his absence suggested that Rodríguez’s government had made a political calculation that preserving its own position was more important than securing the former president’s release.
“As far as the government is concerned, ‘his fate is already sealed’,” said Venezuelan analyst and consultant Edward Rodríguez. “They’ll let the case run its course while they focus on their only priority: survival.”
Rodríguez initially demanded Maduro’s release immediately after his capture, as she sought to consolidate support among hardliners in Venezuela’s security services. Since then, however, she has replaced senior military leaders with her own supporters, while powerful security chief Diosdado Cabello has also moved closer to Washington.
The change has been reflected in Venezuela’s public spaces. Signs and billboards demanding the release of Maduro and Flores appeared across the country in January, but many have since been removed. Murals celebrating Maduro that were painted before his arrest have also been covered, leaving only a small number of large portraits of the former president and his wife in Caracas.
Rodríguez has also largely stopped mentioning her former political patron in public. Her concise speeches represent a marked departure from Maduro’s more populist and fiery style, and she did not invoke him in her address following the conclusion of the latest negotiations.
Yet Maduro retains support among hardcore Chavistas, supporters of the revolutionary socialist movement founded by the late president Hugo Chávez. Some believe Maduro was betrayed by members of his inner circle and handed over to US forces.
“I disagree with these talks, because Trump cannot be allowed to keep imposing things on us while the agreement does not even mention the president who was kidnapped,” said Ricardo García, a grassroots Chavista.
The negotiations have also generated controversy within the opposition, particularly because María Corina Machado, its most popular leader and a Nobel laureate, was excluded from the talks.
The Venezuelan government did not respond to a request for comment, according to the Financial Times.
