Pope Calls for Venezuelan Negotiated Solution to Violence
- Francis says at mass that crisis is ‘exhausting the people’
- Vatican-supported mediation talks stalled in December
National Guard officers fire tear gas during a protest against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela, on Thursday, April 13, 2017. During the economic crisis and the latest protests, which are coinciding with Holy Week, the Catholic Church has regained its critical voice. Although the Vatican mediated the political dialog in late 2016, the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference maintained its outspoken criticism of the government and its management of the process that ended without results.
Photographer: Carlos Becerra/BloombergPope Francis appealed to Venezuela’s government and opposition to end violence that he said is “exhausting the people,” after earlier encouraging the government to seek a negotiated solution.
“I appeal to the government and all the components of the Venezuelan society so that every further form of violence is avoided, human rights are respected and negotiated solutions are sought to the humanitarian, social, political and economic crises, which are exhausting the people,” he said at mass in Vatican City, according to an Associated Press transcript.