Failure In Venezuela Talks Could Lead To 'bloodshed': Vatican Envoy

BUENOS AIRES,(APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News -5th nov,2016) - If upcoming Vatican-backed talks between Venezuela's bitterly antagonistic government and opposition fail, the result could well be "bloodshed," a papal envoy warned Saturday.

"If one delegation or the other ends the dialogue, it's not the pope but the Venezuelan people who will lose, because the path then could truly be one of blood," Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli told the Argentine daily La Nacion in Rome, after visiting Caracas.

Both sides are due to start talks next Friday aimed at finding some way to resolve Venezuela's deepening political and economic crisis. The stakes are high for their oil-dependent nation, which is suffering a scarcity of food and basic goods, and which its unpopular President Nicolas Maduro has increasingly put under the control of his loyal military.

The agreement to hold talks, jointly brokered by the Vatican and the Union of South American Nations, and backed by the United States, ushered in a short-lived truce between the government and the opposition.

The government released a few opposition members from prison. And the opposition called off a symbolic "trial" in congress against Maduro and a street protest. But the prospects look less than promising, with the opposition demanding the release of more "political prisoners" that the talks will lead to early elections, and Maduro shooting back: "There can be no ultimatums."