Maduro refuses dialogue and rejects Gallagher visit

Expectations that the Vatican could mediate between the Venezuelan Government and its opposition were dashed last week when Caracas blocked a proposed visit by the Vatican’s foreign minister, amid escalating chaos in the country.

Archbishop Paul Gallagher was due to visit Venezuela to attend an episcopal ordination, an occasion that the Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, had indicated “could be an occasion for some dialogue”. However, an announcement last week from the diocese of San Cristobál, which would have hosted Gallagher, said: “For reasons beyond the control of the Holy See, [the Secretary for Relations with States] has been forced to cancel his trip to Venezuela.”

The Peruvian Cardinal, Juan Luis Cipriani, said the Venezuelan Government had vetoed the visit. “In Venezuela there’s a very powerful dictatorship which rejects any kind of dialogue,” the cardinal said during an interview with RPP radio in Lima last weekend. “The Pope was keen to send someone to help start dialogue, to facilitate a meeting and move things along a peaceful path, but his entry has been blocked.”

President Nicolás Maduro has announced a state of emergency and police have used tear gas to quell opposition rallies. The powers give Maduro the right to impose tougher security measures and suppress protests. He blames hostile foreign governments and right-wing plotters for Venezuela’s problems, which include the world’s highest inflation rate.

The opposition has collected 1.8 million signatures calling for a referendum on his presidency, saying Maduro has ruined the country through mismanagement. Protesters, fed up with chronic food shortages and power cuts, have clashed with the military in recent weeks during demonstrations calling for Maduro’s removal from office. In December, the opposition won parliamentary elections by a landslide but Maduro has used the government-controlled Supreme Court to prevent change.

Pope Francis has frequently expressed concern over the situation in Venezuela and, according to his spokesman, he recently wrote privately to President Maduro “regarding the situation in the country,” which he is following “with close attention”. A recent survey by the Hinterlaces poll found that 88 per cent of Venezuelans approved of the Pope’s efforts to mediate between Government and opposition.

Last month, the bishops’ conference of Venezuela demanded that the Government allow the aid agency Caritas to “bring food, medicine and other essentials” into the country to answer the dire need. “Never before have Venezuelans suffered these extreme shortages,” said Archbishop Padrón Sánchez, president of the conference.

No response was received and last week it was reported that the Government had blocked the Caritas Venezuela website (since restored) and cut off its phones.

Edsel Moreno who works for the charity told the Spanish newspaper ABC that the Government was preventing Caritas from distributing aid and medicine because it would “demonstrate how grave the situation is for the sick and the many deaths occurring in hospitals and clinics because of a lack of medicines”.

Yaneth Marquez, coordinator of Caritas Venezuela, told CNS news that the charity had been forced to cut its nutrition and health programmes by half. “We survive on what the faithful and some companies give,” she said.