The Catholic Church may soon join leaders seeking dialogue between Venezuela's feuding government and opposition, the head of a regional bloc said yesterday.
Pope Francis played a key role in facilitating the recent rapprochement between Cuba and the US, and he made a highly significant visit to the Central African Republic last November despite frequent outbreaks of violence there.
The former Colombian president Ernesto Samper, who heads the UNASUR bloc of South American states, told state television: "Both sides have accepted the Vatican joining this work... I think it's good news this petition has been accepted by both sides. It will enrich us spiritually and, hopefully, politically."
With Venezuela enduring an unprecedented economic crisis, President Nicolas Maduro's socialist government is locked in a bitter standoff with the Democratic Unity opposition coalition.
The opposition is suspicious of UNASUR and had been requesting a widening of potential mediators, including the Vatican.
In May, it emerged that Pope Francis wrote a personal letter to President Maduro, but the Vatican did not reveal its contents.
But the Vatican's foreign minister cancelled a visit to Venezuela that had been planned for that month.
The opposition won control of the legislature in 2015 and is pushing for a 'recall' referendum this year to try and remove Maduro, whom they blame for Venezuela's runaway inflation, product shortages and a third year of recession.
Maduro, 53, the former bus driver who won election to succeed Hugo Chavez in 2013, accuses them of planning a coup and says the referendum will not happen.
Local church leaders have been extremely critical of Maduro.
UNASUR's Samper, and three other former heads of state – Spain's Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Panama's Martin Torrijos and the Dominican Republic's Leonel Fernandez – have for weeks been trying to bring both sides to the negotiating table.
But the rhetoric remains bitter, and various opposition leaders say Maduro's public exhortations to support dialogue are a cynical attempt to buy time and cling to power.
Democratic Unity head Jesus Torrealba said the coalition would respond to Samper's invitation to dialogue at the weekend.
Additional reporting by Reuters.
