During secret negotiations, the US offered amnesty to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his supporters in exchange for his resignation before the end of his term in January 2025, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources.
According to them, it is about getting rid of charges of involvement in narco-terrorism that the US Department of Justice brought against Maduro and other representatives of the Venezuelan government in 2020. The United States offered the amnesty because it is confident that there convincing evidence of Maduro's defeat in the presidential elections held in July, the newspaper wrote.
According to sources, the United States offered the president amnesty under the same conditions in 2023 during secret talks in Doha, but Maduro refused and his position has not changed since then.
According to the WSJ, if Trump wins the US presidential election in November 2024, the talks could be interrupted if the former president resumes his “aggressive policy” about Maduro.
In March 2020, US Attorney General William Barr announced that US authorities had indicted Nicolás Maduro, as well as other representatives of the country's authorities, for involvement in narco-terrorism. In parallel, the US State Department has offered cash rewards of $5 million to $15 million for information leading to the arrest of those involved in the case, including the president.
Presidential elections were held in Venezuela on July 28. As reported by the National Electoral Council after processing almost 97% of the protocols, 51.95% of fellow citizens voted for current President Nicolás Maduro, and 43.18% for his main rival, far-right opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia. One of the opposition leaders, Maria Corina Machado, said on election day that Gonzalez's team would not concede defeat in the election. Russia, Bolivia, Honduras, Iran, China, Cuba and Nicaragua congratulated the current president of Venezuela on his victory. Several countries did not recognize Maduro's re-election, including Argentina, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru, the United States, Uruguay and Chile. Venezuelan authorities have announced that they are recalling their diplomats from those countries and are demanding that their authorities take a similar step.