A country on the verge of a civil war urgently needs help, the head of the Roman Catholic Church. The Pope can assume the role of mediator in the conflict between the government and the opposition in Venezuela. The country urgently needs help, and the Vatican is ready again to assist in resolving the crisis, "but only if very precise conditions are met," said Francis. Both sides of the conflict must provide guarantees, he explained.. According to the Pontiff, the first attempt at negotiations between the parties to the conflict, undertaken at the end of 2016, failed due to fuzzy proposals for settlement, which opponents did not agree with. In addition, various branches of the opposition disagree on the issue of dialogue, Francis said in an interview with the Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional. Venezuela has been in a deep political crisis for several months already. The conservative and right-wing opposition accuses President Nicolas Maduro of serious economic problems and demands a referendum on the removal of the head of state, whose powers expire in 2018. For many weeks, mass protests against Maduro have been continuing throughout the country. As a result of the clashes with the police, about 30 people were already killed, more than 500 were injured and more than a thousand people were detained. Maduro announced on April 24 that he was ready to hold earlier deferred local elections, without giving a specific timetable.

The President of Venezuela also spoke for the restoration of the dialogue between the government and the opposition. Negotiations with the mediation of the Vatican in December 2016 ended in failure. At the same time, the government categorically excluded the possibility of early presidential elections. Earlier, 11 Latin American states called on the authorities in Caracas to respect freedom of demonstrations.

Original article: Pope can mediate conflict in Venezuela.