President Alberto Fernandez kept one side by side meeting with the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicola Madurowithin the framework of the Meeting of Presidents of South American Countries, which is taking place this Tuesday at the Itamaraty Palace in Brazil, with the aim of generating consensus and strengthening Latin American integration mechanisms.

Within the framework of the bilateral meeting, both parties stressed the importance of normalizing bilateral relations, as the Argentine Ambassador, Oscar Laborde, presented his credentials to President Maduro on July 25, 2022, and the Venezuelan Ambassador , Stella Lugo, presented her credentials on August 29, 2022.

During the meeting, which was also attended by foreign ministers cafe santiago And Yvan Gil PintoAlberto Fernández urged his Venezuelan counterpart for his country to be represented again in international forums and mechanisms, with particular emphasis on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights -IACHR-.

Likewise, the work carried out by Argentina to support dialogue among Venezuelans themselves in the search for a political solution which, within the framework of its institutional and constitutional mechanisms, guarantees the full validity of democracy and respect of human rights, thus contributing to the recovery of the Venezuelan economy and the well-being of its people.

In this sense, Argentina proposes that a roadmap be agreed with the ruling party and the opposition where guarantees for the electoral process of the year 2024 are drawn up.

Argentina reiterated the need to lift the sanctions imposed by other countries, as it has done on different occasions such as the IX Summit of the Americas in June 2022 in the United States, the VII Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) in Buenos Aires in January 2023 and the International Conference held in Colombia in April of this year, since the political solution to the situation in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela must not be subjected to external pressures or conditions to guarantee the full validity of democracy and respect for human rights.

At this point, it should be recalled that within the framework of the Paris Peace Forum in November 2022, the French presidents, Emmanuel Macron; from Argentina, Alberto Fernández, and from Colombia, Gustavo Petro, expressed their full support for the resumption of the negotiation process between the Venezuelans in a special sequence on this country in which they met the representatives for the dialogue of the government, Jorge Rodríguez, and the opposition United Platform, Gerardo Blyde, as well as Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt.

Likewise, on April 25, 2023, an international conference was held in Colombia, at the request of the Colombian President, to promote dialogue between representatives of civil society, the opposition and the government of Venezuela, with the aim of reopen the roads and build a roadmap to stimulate and support dialogue.

Participation in the meeting in Colombia, in addition to our country -represented by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Santiago Cafiero-, Germany, Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Spain, the United States- United States, France, Honduras, Italy, Mexico, Norway, Portugal, United Kingdom, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, South Africa, Turkey and the High Representative for Business foreign affairs and security policy of the European Union, Josep Borrell.