For weeks, representatives of Venezuelan President Nicols Maduro and his would-be successor, opposition leader Juan Guaid, have been shuttling back and forth to Barbados trying to agree on a common path out of the country's prolonged political standoff.
The meetings have been slow-going and shrouded in mystery, with neither side disclosing details. But now Maduro's supporters are accusing the US of trying to blow up the fragile process.
The purported explosive: sweeping new sanctions that freeze all of the Maduro government's assets in the US and even threaten to punish companies from third countries that keep doing business with his socialist administration.
"They're trying to dynamite the dialogue," Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said Tuesday at a news conference to denounce comments by US National Security Adviser John Bolton defending the asset freeze.
"But nobody, not even 1,000 Trumps or 500 Boltons ... will make us abandon the negotiating table."
All three insist progress has been made, even if the thorny topic of elections is being left for last and an all-encompassing deal based on a six-point agenda is some way off. The people agreed to speak to
"No more time for tap, tap, tapping. Now is the time for action."