Maduro asks the opposition to work to lift international sanctions

The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, today announced that his main demand to the opposition in the new round of negotiations that will begin next December in the Republic The Dominican Republic will initiate an international campaign to lift the sanctions against its Government.

Caracas, Nov 16 (EFE) .- Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced today that his main demand to the opposition in the new round of negotiations that will begin next month December in the Dominican Republic will be to start an international campaign to lift the sanctions against his Government.

According to the president, his emissaries will ask for Borges and Luis Florido "commit to talk with the US government and demand that it lift the financial and economic persecution, and the sanctions against Venezuela, that is the requirement that Venezuela to the dialogue table ".

Julio Borges -president of the Parliament- and Luis Florido are the two leaders of the alliance of opposition parties Mesa de la Unidad Democrática (MUD) They will represent the opposition in the negotiations in Santo Domingo, where the parties have been summoned for December 1 and 2.

"We put a theme among many, a central theme, I I sent him to demand from the Venezuelan opposition that by the year 2018 we will reach an agreement so that there will be presidential elections with guarantees, economic guarantees, that the US government sanctions, to stop financial persecution, "Maduro added.

In an act from the state of Aragua, the president asked his followers to imagine" that we get to an agreement with the opposition and they will go around the world to tell their allies on the right that there is enough of war against Venezuela. "

Venezuela and its state oil company, PDVSA, have been declared in "default", or suspension of payments, by some rating agencies and financial market institutions, after suffering delays in recent days, the payments to their holders of some of the Venezuelan bonds.

Venezuela has an external debt of about 150,000 million dollars, and has asked its creditors for a refinancing or restructuring of this debt. Allow him to continue fulfilling his obligations more easily.

The Chavista government blames the financial sanctions adopted in August by the United States -which prohibits those who operate in their financial system to negotiate with new debt issued by Caracas and PDVSA- of these problems to pay and access new sources of credit.

Maduro also said that the The main demand of the opposition in the Dominican Republic is to "change the electoral system", after the MUD denounced serious irregularities and fraud in the regional elections of the last October 15.

"We asked him, what electoral system do you want, Colombian, Spanish or United States?", asked the Chavista leader before an audience that answered with resounding "no".

"I hope that the opposition gets serious and makes a proposal because they say they want a new electoral system. the most advanced and perfect in the world, we are going to defend him tooth and nail, "said the president.

Nicolás Maduro replaced the late president Hugo Chávez in power and finalizes its first mandate at the end of 2018.