Venezuela Government and Opposition Wrap Second Round of US-Backed Dialogue, Agree Technical Table on Free Expression

September 18, 2026 — Delegations representing interim President Delcy Rodríguez's government and the 2015 National Assembly concluded the second day of the second round of US-backed dialogue at the Melia Caracas hotel. The government delegation (led by National Assembly president Jorge Rodríguez, with Ana María San Juan, Jorge Arreaza, América Pérez, Génesis Garvett and Pedro Infante) and the opposition delegation (led by former deputy Dinorah Figuera, with Marco Aurelio Quiñones, Ramón López, Jorge Millán, Juan Miguel Matheus and Sergio Vergara) established a new technical table on freedom of expression and access to information, alongside a mechanism to track implementation of prior commitments. Figuera said the delegation carried 'great responsibility to give the Venezuelan people a consolidation of a path toward democracy.' The session covered political and civil guarantees, the status of political prisoners, and judicial reform; no joint statements to media were scheduled during the talks. Nobel laureate María Corina Machado and Edmundo González Urrutia remain outside the negotiating delegation. The round follows the first cycle's August 12 agreements on Supreme Tribunal of Justice reform and recovery of Bank of England gold reserves for earthquake reconstruction.