RECENT TOURS AND MISSIONS DESERVE TO BE INTERPRETED

Leonardo Vera / Informe Carpe Diem.– Maduro responded to Venezuela’s exclusion from the Ninth Summit of the Americas organized by the White House in Los Angeles, California, by carrying out an unscheduled 10-day tour throughout countries in Eurasia and North Africa, including Turkey, Algeria, Iran, Kuwait, Qatar and Azerbaijan. His opaque agenda does not make possible to fully know the specific goals of the tour.

In fact, beyond strengthening the nexus and some plans to promote certain cooperation agreements in the future, the tour did not seem to bring any extraordinary achievements, but it should be interpreted in some way.

The suddenness of the tour and its timing indicate that it is an effort to further strengthen relations with countries clearly outside the U.S. sphere of influence, with the ultimate goal of making those relations visible to the West.

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In some respect, Maduro’s tour is an attempt to send a strong message about who his true allies are, highlighting that if the tribune of the Americas is closed, he will find other equally important tribunes on the other side of the world. The truth is that upon his arrival from the tour, the best that Nicolás Maduro could say was that some general agreements were reached, and that in the following weeks, meetings would be held in Caracas with the representatives of the countries that he included in the tour, to close specific investment agreements in the fields of gas, petrochemicals, oil and food production in the country.

What issues did Maduro address in each of the countries visited? In Turkey, where he met on June 8 with his counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, he signed three new agreements in the fields of tourism, agriculture and finance. 

In Algeria, he met with Prime Minister Abdelmadjid Tebboune to discuss bilateral issues, mainly energy, cultural, agricultural and economic, including the possibility of opening an air route between Algiers and Caracas.

In Iran, he was received by President Ebrahim Raisi, with whom he attended the signing of a long-term agreement at the Sad Abad Palace in Tehran, in a meeting defined as the beginning of "an indestructible friendship". A 20-year cooperation document was signed between the two countries to develop relations in different fields. No details of the agreement were disclosed beyond the fact that it covers the oil, petrochemical, tourism, food and technology sectors.

Iran has been one of Nicolás Maduro's closest partners in oil matters. Iran has been assuming operational control of some refineries in the country and has been offering inputs to the local industry to help it produce gasoline. The visit to Iran takes place amid high tensions throughout the Middle East following the failure of the nuclear deal between Iran and the world powers. The failure takes place in a framework where US sanctions still prevail and with a global rise in food prices suffocating the ailing Iranian economy and increasing the pressure on its government and population.

In Kuwait, Maduro was received at the Bayan Palace by Prime Minister Ahmed Nasser al Mohamed Al Sabah, and the President of the National Assembly, Marzouq Al Ghanem. At the meeting they agreed to activate a joint commission for cooperation in political, diplomatic, financial, commercial, tourism, energy and agricultural matters. He also met with the Secretary General of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Kuwait's Haitham al Ghais, appointed last January, who will take office next August. In Qatar, he was received by the Qatari Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sultan bin Saad Al Muraikhi, and then met at the Emiri Diwan Government Palace with Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in what is his second official visit to Doha.

The talks and agreements simply aimed at expanding cooperation ties, especially in the areas of energy, agriculture and tourism. Finally, Maduro was in Azerbaijan, where he could only engage in talks with his counterpart Ilham Heydar Oglu Aliyev by videoconference, due to suspicious results in the COVID-19 tests carried out on members of the Venezuelan delegation.

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The surprise came days later, when Nicolás Maduro, already in Caracas, announced the visit of U.S. officials to address a "bilateral agenda". The visit, which aroused multiple expectations and speculations, took place days after the family of imprisoned former U.S. Marine Matthew Heath in Venezuela said he had attempted suicide and claimed that the U.S. government had not reacted quickly to concerns about his condition.

The new mission to Caracas consisted of Roger Carstens, the State Department's special envoy for hostage affairs; and Jimmy Story, the U.S. ambassador to Venezuela.

Carstens had already been to Caracas six months earlier in an attempt to verify "the welfare and safety" of Americans detained in Venezuela, especially CITGO executives. Although Carstens' presence is mainly linked to the issue of the U.S. prisoners, undoubtedly (as noted by Maduro) he also intends to continue with the talks initiated on March 5 and with the bilateral agenda between the U.S. and the Venezuelan government.

Meanwhile, the opposition claimed to have met simultaneously and separately with members of the mission, especially with Ambassador Story, in an effort undoubtedly intended to lobby for the resumption of negotiations with the government.

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