Mexico’s President Enrique Pena Nieto received a leading Venezuelan opposition activist for the first time, in a policy shift that reflects Mexico’s increasing assertiveness against the government of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro.
Pena Nieto’s meeting with Lilian Tintori, wife of jailed opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, in the Mexican capital follows statements by the Mexican government demanding that democracy be “re-established” in Venezuela, where elections have been postponed.
“We trust that, via an agreement between all sides, it will be the Venezuelans who re-establish the democratic order,” Pena Nieto said via Twitter late on Thursday after the meeting.
The position reflects deep concern about the humanitarian crisis of food and medicine shortages in Venezuela, as well as the Supreme Court’s short-lived decision last week to take over the powers of the country’s opposition-controlled Congress.
It is also seen by diplomats as helping support relationships between Mexico and the government of United States President Donald Trump.
Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez last week slammed her Mexican counterpart Luis Videgaray’s “betrayal” and called him “servile” after Videgaray said the situation in Venezuela was a “systematic violation” of democratic principles.
This handout picture released by Lilian Tintori’s press office showing Mexican President Pena Nieto with Tintori (right) and Antonieta Mendoza de Lopez, the mother of imprisoned Venezuelan leader Leopoldo Lopez, during a private meeting in Mexico City.
