He Washington Post has published fragments of a confidential conversation between Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State of the Holy See, and the American ambassador to the Vatican, Brian Burch, in which Parolin tried to negotiate on Christmas Eve the exile of former Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, to Russia.
“It is disappointing that parts of a confidential conversation have been revealed “which do not accurately reflect the content of the conversation, which took place during the Christmas period,” the Vatican press office declared to the American newspaper.
According to the documents, Parolin recognized that Nicolás Maduro should leave the presidency of Venezuela, but urged the United States to offer him a way outsupporting a Russian proposal that would allow “go away and enjoy your money” under security guarantees.
On December 24, on Christmas Eve, Parolin expressed confusion over the lack of clarity of US objectives in Venezuela and requested additional information about whether Donald Trump intended only to persecute drug traffickers or I wanted to change the regime.
The Vatican was especially concerned about the possibility of bloodshed and a diplomatic crisis increasing. In response, Parolin proposed that Maduro be given a clear deadline to leave the country.
The United States was clear that Maduro was not going to accept the plan: “He was simply going to sit back and watch people create a crisis.”
Given this refusal by Maduro to make progress in the negotiations, the United States focused on a plan for his succession: Delcy Rodríguez.
This decision was made after ruling out opposition leader María Corina Machado as the most optimal option for succession. Trump’s reasoning was partially influenced by a recent classified CIA evaluationwhich concluded that Maduro loyalists would be more successful in running a post-Maduro government than Machado and his team.
Venezuela and the Vatican
Pietro Parolin was nuncio in Venezuela from 2009 to 2013until Pope Francis appointed him Secretary of State. This makes him have a special interest in the situation of the Latin American country, knowing first-hand the reality.
He has also acted during his diplomatic career as intermediary with the Trump administration in negotiations related to Ukraine and Russiaaccording to people familiar with the conversations.
Despite this, in 2021, Maduro described as “garbage” a letter that Parolin made to a Venezuelan business association in which he invited dialogue.
This same Friday, during Pope Leo’s greeting at the beginning of the year with the Diplomatic Corps, the Pontiff requested “that the will of the Venezuelan people be respected and that work be done to protect the human and civil rights of all and to build a future of stability and harmony.
In his December 24 meeting with Burch, according to documents obtained by The Washington PostParolin assured that Russia was willing to receive Maduro and shared what reports described as a “rumor”: that Venezuela had become a key player in the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, and that Moscow would be willing to abandon its support for Caracas if it achieved favorable concessions on the Ukrainian front.
Parolin added that these negotiations “require political will on the part of those involved, willingness to let the common good prevail over particular interests, and the responsible support of civil society and the international community.”