Mexico, Uruguay Initiative for Venezuela Dialogue Begins

European and Latin American leaders will gather Thursday in the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo to discuss plan to solve the deepening political situation in Venezuela, but will steer clear of direct intervention.

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The International Contact Group on Venezuela proposed by Mexico and Uruguay at the beginning of the U.S. back coup, will hold its inaugural meeting Thursday, laying out a more hands-off approach that is at odds with calls by the United States and right-wing Latin American governments for more intervention.

The gathering comes on the heels of a separate meeting of the harder-line Lima Group in Canada, which included the group of countries that support a coup in Venezuela.

The latest conflagration of tensions erupted when Juan Guaido, a lawmaker from Venezuela's National Assembly, a legislative body held in judicial contempt by the Supreme Court since 2016, illegally declared himself interim president on Jan.10.  

On the eve of the meeting on Wednesday, Mexico, Uruguay and Caribbean countries presented a plan for Venezuela, titled the “Montevideo Mechanism.”

“This is based on good faith, where we don’t intervene unless with dialogue, negotiation, communication and a willingness to contribute,” Mexico's foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, told reporters in Montevideo, echoing comments made earlier this week.