Macron talks with Maduro at COP27 and proposes ‘bilateral work’ with Venezuela

French President Emmanuel Macron proposed this Monday (7) to Venezuela’s dictator, Nicolás Maduro, a partnership to deal with Latin America. The invitation, at COP27, a conference on climate change, reinforces the resumption of the regime’s links with Western powers after the Ukrainian War.

The two leaders talked for about a minute and a half in the corridors of the event, in Egypt, and exchanged smiles. “I would be delighted if we can talk longer so that we can carry out bilateral work that is useful for the region,” Macron said. “I’ll call you,” added the Frenchman.

The real meaning of what would be the “useful bilateral work” proposed by Macron is uncertain. But in this case, the conversation alone is already symbolic. France, along with the rest of the European Union, was one of the countries leading the global push to recognize the opposition Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s president – in reaction to accusations of fraud in the 2018 elections that guaranteed Maduro’s current term.

At the beginning of last year, however, the European bloc announced that it would no longer recognize the opposition leader as leader of the South American country, after he lost the Presidency of the National Assembly of Venezuela. On the occasion, on the other hand, the head of EU Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, said that Guaidó is one of the “political and civil society actors fighting to bring back democracy to Venezuela”.

Since then, ties to the opposition have grown increasingly weak, even as European leaders keep their distance from Maduro. Still in this Monday’s dialogue, for example, when the dictator asked Macron when he would visit him, the two laughed. Finally, he told the Frenchman that “France must play a positive role” in Latin America, without giving details of what that would mean.

The Frenchman’s cordiality has obvious reasons: the War in Ukraine affected the supply of gas and oil from Russia to Europe, and now the continent needs new suppliers. In June, Paris defended “diversification of sources of oil supply” during a G7 meeting in Germany and pointed to Iran and Venezuela – both of which are targets of US and EU sanctions.

Caracas, in turn, responded the next day that Venezuela was ready to receive French oil companies “who want to come and produce oil and gas for the European and world market.” “Welcome whenever you want, we are ready, ready and ready to do it,” Maduro added.

The dictator is experiencing his best political moment in recent years. Last week, he received Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro, marking a turning point in relations between Caracas and Bogotá.

The fact is that the international scenario favors the regime, to a certain extent. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the United States has signaled that it might be interested in resuming the purchase of oil from Venezuela and, in this context, reducing some of the sanctions against allies of the dictatorship.

The director for the Western hemisphere and special adviser to the White House, Juan González, flew to Caracas in March and met with Maduro. Although they have not yet resulted in business in practice, the conversations continue. On the part of Washington, the signal is that some sanctions may drop.

At the end of this Monday’s dialogue, Maduro did not hide his happiness. In an entirely translated conversation, he risked speaking in French in his last sentence: “Merci beaucoup (thank you very much),” he told Macron.