Venezuela, US launch talks amid economic, political crisis

The US and Venezuelan governments said they would launch new high-level talks as the South American country struggles with a political and economic crisis.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro yesterday said in televised comments that the countries agreed to launch "a new stage of dialogue."

US Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters he would send a top State Department envoy to Caracas "as soon as possible."

The announcement came after Kerry met with Venezuela's Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez on the sidelines of the general assembly of the Organisation of American States (OAS).

Kerry said he discussed with Rodriguez the Venezuelan opposition's efforts to hold a recall referendum on whether to remove Maduro from power.
 
He said the United States was "supporting the constitutional process" to organise a referendum, which Maduro is resisting.

"We agreed to have a dialogue immediately" with Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Tom Shannon representing the United States, Kerry said.

Maduro shortly afterward said he had agreed to new talks with Washington, with whom Venezuela's socialist leaders have had tense relations over recent years.

Kerry and Rodriguez "proposed that we immediately start a new stage of dialogue with new channels of communication and an ensemble of high-level meetings, and I said to the foreign minister: approved," Maduro said.

Oil-rich Venezuela has slid into crisis as crude prices have crashed over the past two years. Citizens are suffering shortages of basic goods.

Maduro has accused the United States and the Washington-based OAS of conspiring against his government.