Orlando Avendano writes for PanAm Post and discusses how socialism doomed Venezuela and will do the same in Nicaragua.

In Venezuela, at least four processes of dialogue have taken place between the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro and the representatives of the Venezuelan official opposition in the last four years. All in vain. Unfruitful. Small victories for the regime. Achieving nothing for the society that had to witness the ‘negotiations’.

The dialoguing bought Maduro time and won him support. The ostensible opposition leadership deviated, delayed relevant strategies and deluded a society. In the end, they were only terrible disappointments for a legitimate cause.

At the time the dialogues were promoted by leading actors of the international community. In 2014, the Vatican and Unasur. Then, some regional Chavista allies: Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Bolivia, and the former Spanish president, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.

But although many did not participate directly in the attempt to sponsor dialogue, there was the usual pantheon of cheerleaders of the world in support of the meetings. The Obama administration through its emissary Thomas Shannon; the European Union voiced support. The countries of the world considered, until last year – when good sense returned to Western nations and important regime changes occurred in the region – that dialogue was the most sensible alternative to solve the crisis in Venezuela.

Now the citizens of Nicaragua must confront a similar situation: faced with the criminal repression of the regime of Daniel Ortega – which has exposed his clear authoritarian style and his eagerness for young blood -, the nations of the world have chosen to suggest an inept strategy of dialogue that would only favor the Sandinistas.

Ortega is pleading for a dialogue with the opposition. He needs it. “We are confirming our willingness to resume this open dialogue,” said the vice president and first lady of Nicaragua, Rosario Murillo. Spain has joined the chorus of the United States, Germany, Canada and, of course, Pope Bergoglio.

“We expect from the government of Nicaragua a prompt and total clarification of the circumstances in which these deaths have taken place,” reads a statement from the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Then, they state that Ortega’s decision to withdraw social reforms “is a step towards the dialogue in which all social sectors must participate.”

“We demand that all parties involved resolve the situation with an inclusive peaceful dialogue to protect the rights and security of the Nicaraguan people,” Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said in a statement.