Caracas Talks Draw In Chavismo and the 2015 Opposition — Miami's Diaspora Is Watching the Clock

Venezuelan National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez (C-R) and his delegation members Pedro Infante, Ana Maria San Juan, Jorge Arreaza, Genesis Garvett and America Perez, and former opposition lawmaker Dinorah Figuera (C-L) and her delegation members Juan Miguel Matheus, Jorge Millan, Ramon Lopez, Desiree Barboza and Marco Aurelio Quinones, pose for an official photo before the launch of Venezuela's political dialogue process at the Conventions Center in La Carlota neighborhood, Sucre municipality, Caracas on August 6, 2026. US-backed political transition talks between Venezuela's interim government and opposition representatives began on August 6, 2026 in Caracas, an AFP photographer in attendance observed. (Credit: Photo by Federico PARRA / AFP via Getty Images)

MIAMI — Seven months after American forces removed Nicolás Maduro from power, his government and a faction of Venezuela's opposition are finally sitting across the same table, trying to plot a route back to elections. The negotiation, which launched Aug. 6 at the La Carlota air base in Caracas and runs in continuous session through Aug. 12, is the ninth attempt at dialogue between chavismo and its opponents in roughly a decade — yet the first carried out with Washington's open, active backing. For the hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who rebuilt their lives across South Florida, what happens inside that closed-door room matters well beyond Caracas: it could decide whether relatives left behind finally get a genuine vote, and it's already reshaping how Washington treats Venezuelans on U.S. soil.

Washington's Hand Behind the Table