Frankly, the Panamá thing irritates me a lot. First, because the problem is not Maduro. Or better to say, is not only Maduro. Maduro is just the nominal head of a group of people. Is he going to give asylum to Cabello, Saab, the Rodríguez brothers, Padrino López, Maikel Moreno, and a very long list of people?
But more insulting, there is NOTHING right now that will make Maduro and company accept anything like that. For that offer to be accepted, the country would have to be up in arms, with at least half the Armed Forces on the other side. And then he would think about going somewhere friendly, Russia, China, Cuba, not Panamá. But again, the big point is that without any pressure, they will keep working as they are now - why go to exile when you can simply kill, torture, scare and bully people till they break? Why risk it when being even more authoritarian each day gives them the same immunity for their crimes and they get to keep power too?
In general, almost every time I hear negotiation or dialog about Venezuela, I get really angry. Because most of the people saying it seem to think dialog is some magic wand that will solve problems by having a nice discussion and then everybody will compromise to get the best result for the country. Similar with Ukraine.
If I want to buy, say, a desk, and you have a business selling furniture, you and I can sit and have a negotiation and see if you convince me to buy it and I convince you to give me a better price.
If I want to kill you and you dont want to be killed, unless you make me reconsider the cost of that plan with some significative threat to me, the negotiation is going to be, like all the hundreds of negotiation with Chavismo in all these years, a maneuver to buy time at best.
Until the situation evolves to a point where they fear losing freedom, money, or life, it is clear that for them there is no incentive to sit and negotiate in good faith, when they can just keep their program of cruelty and keep all that and control of the country too.
EDIT: and before anybody gets the wrong impression, I’m not advocating for, say, foreign military intervention, mainly for the combo of that being a risky thing for all involved and being something no government is even thinking about. But as mentioned in a post way back, the dictatorship before this one fell when the Army decided to stop supporting Pérez Jiménez, who then got in a plane to Spain (Franco was still alive and Spain was the best destination for assholes of a certain political bent). Thats the kind of situation that works, because there is a credible threat.
