CARACAS: Venezuela's embattled government and opposition leaders agreed Monday to hold talks to defuse a growing political crisis, but mistrust lingers after a recall bid against the president was scuttled.
With the mediation of the Vatican and the UNASUR regional group, the two sides agreed after hours-long talks that ended before dawn on an agenda that includes a new meeting next month.
But opponents of socialist President Nicolas Maduro remained wary while the opposition itself is divided over the strategy, with some groups refusing to sit down with the government.
"Whether this dialogue has or doesn't have continuity will depend on concrete gestures from the government," said Jesus Torrealba, executive secretary of the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD), the opposition group participating in the talks.
"The opening of this dialogue doesn't mean by a long shot that the struggle will stop," Torrealba said.
But Torrealba suggested that the opposition could reconsider holding a planned a protest on Thursday in front of the Miraflores presidential palace.
Seated at a museum on the outskirts of Caracas as the talks began late Sunday, Maduro expressed his "total and absolute commitment to dialogue."
The US government, which has had difficult relations with Venezuela dating back to the late leftist icon Hugo Chavez, announced that senior diplomat Thomas Shannon was headed to Venezuela on Monday to back the political dialogue.
"His visit will underscore our support for the ongoing dialogue process, and our interest in the wellbeing of the Venezuelan people," the State Department said.
New meeting in November
The MUD demands that the government release jailed opposition leaders and revive the recall referendum process or organize early elections. But the government has denied that the jailed opponents are political prisoners and it warns that it will not let itself be toppled.
The two sides will meet again on November 11 in Caracas.
Before that, each will work separately on issues including respect for the rule of law; justice, human rights and reconciliation; the social and economic crisis; and the thorny election issue.
But one of the main opposition parties, the Popular Will, led by its jailed leader Leopoldo Lopez, and 14 other political groups stayed away from the process, saying the conditions for the talks had not been met.
The talks came after electoral authorities earlier in October halted a drive to hold a recall referendum against Maduro.
The Vatican could play a key role in soothing tensions.
"I don't believe Maduro, not even on good days. They are devils capable of anything. But I do trust Pope Francis," said former opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles.
Analysts warn that the government may just be trying to buy more time while the opposition risks further internal divisions.
"We have very little time to generate trust in the dialogue. The magnitude of the crisis is far-reaching," said political scientist and sociologist Francisco Coello.
"The desperation in the street is very high," he said, referring to the country's deep economic crisis.
A recent poll found that more than 75 percent of Venezuelans disapprove of their deeply unpopular president, Chavez's handpicked successor.
But another analyst, Luis Vicente Leon, said that, if the opposition was not sure it could mobilize people massively into the street, its best bet was to negotiate, "putting its hypothetical force on the table before showing it didn't have it empirically."
'Abandoned his post'
Maduro's opponents blame him for an economic crisis that has caused food shortages and riots in the oil-rich country.
The opposition has vowed to use their majority in the legislature to declare that the leftist leader has "abandoned his post" and has threatened to subject him to a political trial.
Maduro has responded by threatening to throw his political enemies in jail, accusing the opposition of trying to overthrow the government through "unconstitutional and undemocratic means."
Venezuela has the world's largest oil reserves, but is suffering a deep economic crisis sparked by falling crude prices.
The International Monetary Fund estimates inflation in Venezuela will hit 475 percent this year.
As recently as Friday, Venezuela's opposition had sought to tighten the screws on Maduro by launching a general strike.
Opponents staged a massive demonstration last week that drew hundreds of thousands of people.
Clashes at anti-government rallies in 2014 -- a key flashpoint in the current crisis -- left 43 people dead.