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Venezuela: No breakthrough in opposition peace talks

President Nicholas Maduro and anti-government groups fail to find common ground

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and opposition leaders traded barbs for six hours late on Thursday in a debate over the last two months of anti-government protests, but found no common ground.

Mr Maduro had been widely praised for instituting the talks, but opposition leaders seemed uninterested in conciliation of any kind.

They used the opportunity to demand amnesty for people arrested in the recent wave of violent protests.

But President Maduro flatly refused the demands.

The protests have left 40 dead and 600 wounded and Mr Maduro lashed out at the demonstrations, branding them a “fascist” US-backed plot to overthrow his government.

During the debate he accused radical elements of the opposition of seeking to depose him.

The president insisted that the opposition must “condemn violence as a way of doing politics, as a form and strategy for changing governments.”

Opposition leader Henrique Capriles said “Venezuela is in a deeply critical situation” and claimed he did not want to see the government fall.

Ramon Aveledo, representative of umbrella opposition alliance MUD, also demanded that the government disarm civilian social-welfare oriented groups known as “colectivos,” which are seen as pro-Maduro.

Mr Maduro said No.

The talks, which were brought about by a group of foreign ministers from the regional South American organisation Unasur, were widely televised.

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