- Title: French President Macron meets Venezuelan opposition, offers support
- Date: 4th September 2017
- Summary: CARACAS, VENEZUELA (FILE - MAY 20, 2017) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF MASSIVE DEMONSTRATION TINTORI HOLDING FLAG AND OPPOSITION LEADERS ADDRESSING CROWD FROM ON TOP OF TRUCK
- Embargoed: 18th September 2017 17:17
- Keywords: Venezuela opposition Macron Juio Borges Freddy Guevara
- Location: PARIS, FRANCE
- City: PARIS, FRANCE
- Country: France
- Topics: Diplomacy/Foreign Policy,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA0026X6LETJ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: French President Emmanuel Macron, who last week called Venezuela a dictatorship, met with opposition representatives on Monday (September 4), including the president and vice-president of the opposition-governed congress.
Venezuela's opposition says President Nicolas Maduro's socialist government has stepped up repression of opponents this year, while officials say they are acting to stop violent coup plots fomented by the United States and other foreign powers.
Macron last week said that Maduro's administration "a dictatorship trying to survive at the cost of unprecedented humanitarian distress."
Congress President Julio Borges said President Macron offered humanitarian support to the country.
The situation in Venezuela has a particular resonance in France, where the far-left France Unbowed party, currently Macron's most vocal opponent, backs Maduro.
Human rights activist Lilian Tintori, the wife of Venezuela's best-known detained political leader, Leopoldo Lopez, said on Saturday she had been barred from flying out of the country to go to France and other EU capitals. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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