Venezuelan Opposition Suspends Talks with Govt. over Arrests

Venezuela's opposition said Tuesday it has suspended working group-level talks with the government because of mass arrests of student protesters last week.

"These actions show that the government does not want dialogue, when it has been asked several times to stop this very aggressive position," said Juan Jose Medina, the coordinator of the opposition delegation.

"We're convinced that they are creating a climate that is not conducive to talks," he said.

Medina said the meetings of government-opposition working groups were suspended on Monday.

The opposition coalition, which goes by the acronym MUD, also was mulling whether to take part in higher level talks Thursday with the government under auspices of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) and the Vatican, he said.

More than 200 people were arrested in police raids last week on encampments of protesters in Caracas, a focus of the street demonstrations against the government of President Nicolas Maduro.

Most of those detained have since been freed but the NGO Penal Forum said eight more protesters were arrested Monday night in clashes with police.

Maduro's socialist government and the moderate wing of the Democratic Unity (MUD) opposition coalition established the committees to review the cases of detained opposition leaders and student, and to create a truth commission to investigate protest violence, among other tasks.

Maduro agreed to the face-to-face meetings with the opposition after Unasur offered to mediate.

At least 42 people have died and more than 800 have been injured since students and other opponents of the socialist government took to the streets in February to protest rampant crime, runaway inflation and shortages of basic goods.