The president of the Venezuelan National Assembly, Jorge Rodriguez, will be one of those leading negotiations aimed at rebuilding the country's democratic institutions. Photo by Ronald Pena/EPA
July 15 (UPI) -- Venezuela's government and a portion of the opposition have reached agreement to begin a process aimed at rebuilding the country's democratic institutions after the capture of Nicolás Maduro by a U.S. military force in January.
The process, initially scheduled to begin weeks ago, was postponed because of the humanitarian emergency caused by two earthquakes that struck the country June 24.
With the most critical phase of the emergency over, the government and opposition will launch a bilateral technical working group Aug. 1, marking their first joint step toward designing electoral reforms with U.S. support.
At the core of the agreement is an unprecedented mutual recognition between two parallel legislative bodies.
