A faint hope for Venezuela

SINCE A FAILED attempt on April 30th to trigger a military uprising against the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela has entered a costly stalemate. The opposition is not strong enough to bring Mr Maduro down. He cannot halt the country’s slide into penurious ungovernability. Against this background, both sides sat down in Barbados this week at talks convened by Norway’s government. After three preliminary meetings, this marked the start of “continuous and expeditious” negotiations, according to Norway’s foreign ministry.

The plan is to meet every Monday to Wednesday in Barbados to tackle a six-point agenda, starting with elections and the lifting of sanctions imposed by the United States and others. The opposition’s delegates command wide respect. The government team are officials close to Mr Maduro. The Norwegians are experienced mediators. Having acted as facilitators in the peace talks in Havana between Colombia’s government and the FARC guerrillas they are trusted by Cuba, Mr Maduro’s chief international backer. Yet there are big reasons for scepticism.