On Monday, Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro affirmed that he will evaluate "what will happen" with the dialogue with the opposition after the extradition to the US of Bolivarian diplomat Alex Saab on Saturday.
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"Later we will evaluate what will happen with these dialogues... For now, we are outraged, protesting, and facing injustice," he said.
On June 12, 2020, the Cape Verde authorities arrested Saab, whom the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury accused of money laundering.
Despite being imprisoned in Cape Verde, Saab was appointed as a member of the Venezuelan government commission that dialogues with the opposition in Mexico City. After his arbitrary extradition to the United States, the Venezuelan government suspended the talks but did not definitively cancel them.
"With the kidnapping of Alex Saab, the U.S. and the Unitary Platform opposition simply broke all the rules of the game," he said and defended the dialogue "but playing fair, respecting the rules, and respecting the adversary."
Maduro also rejected the words of the State Department spokesman Ned Price who questioned the Bolivarian government for the temporary interruption of the dialogue.
Price's statements "demonstrate once again that his government operates as a powerful world machine for the systematic and permanent violation of human rights and international law at the global level," the Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Ministry said, adding that the Bolivarian government requested Cape Verde not to extradite Saab and comply with the recommendations of the United Nations Human Rights Council special rapporteurs.