Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has suspended mediated talks with his country’s opposition movement to protest the Trump administration’s latest sanctions. The move threatens what many analysts and diplomats consider to be the country’s best chance of ending a crippling political and economic crisis, The New York Times reports.
Accusing the administration of “grave and brutal aggression,” Maduro recalled his envoys late Wednesday night, hours before they were to board a plane to rejoin opposition negotiators and Norwegian mediators on the Caribbean island of Barbados.
On Monday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order freezing all Venezuelan state assets in the United States, and his national security adviser, John R. Bolton, threatened to impose sanctions on Maduro’s remaining trade partners.
Venezuela has been in an ongoing recession since Maduro took office in 2013 and initially doubled down on his predecessor’s disastrous policies of currency and price controls and expropriations. As his popularity tanked, he has increasingly relied on repression and electoral machinations to stay in power.
The United States has progressively cut off Maduro’s access to international finance since January, when it recognized the head of Venezuela’s opposition, Juan Guaido, as the country’s legitimate leader. The latest executive order is intended to scare off Maduro’s remaining trading partners in Russia and Asia from doing business in Venezuela.
It was unclear whether Maduro would rejoin the talks at a later date. Both sides have benefited from appearing to seek a negotiated resolution to the crisis, but the latest American sanctions have emboldened hardline opponents of the talks within Maduro’s administration.
“The Barbados dialogue is a dialogue with extremists,” Maduro said on state television Wednesday after suspending the talks. “Many ask me why you’re talking with those who want to kill you.”
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