Venezuela's interim government announced it will start formal talks with some opposition members beginning Saturday, August 1, 2026. The initiative comes over six months after US forces captured former leader Nicolás Maduro in Caracas and brought him to New York on drug-trafficking charges.

The current interim president, Vice-President Delcy Rodríguez, a Maduro loyalist supported by the Trump administration, has led the government since Maduro's ouster. The opposition, however, had anticipated a broader governmental change following Maduro's removal.

The plan for talks was announced almost simultaneously by opposition politicians and Jorge Rodríguez, head of the government-controlled National Assembly and brother of Delcy Rodríguez. Jorge Rodríguez cited the devastation caused by twin earthquakes in northern Venezuela on June 24, 2026, as a key reason for initiating dialogue, stating, "Only through unity can we move forward with reconstruction and maintain peace."

An opposition statement described the talks as a means to lay down "a route map towards democracy" aimed at strengthening democratic institutions and the electoral system.

The 2024 presidential election remains contested, with the National Electoral Council (CNE) declaring Maduro the winner despite independent electoral observers verifying an overwhelming victory for opposition candidate Edmundo González.

Despite the release of many political prisoners after Maduro's removal, 372 remain incarcerated according to the prisoners' rights group Foro Penal. Notably, opposition leader María Corina Machado has been unable to return to Venezuela since secretly leaving the country in November to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for her democracy advocacy.

The talks are reportedly taking place on invitation from the US State Department.

Sources