The United States looms large in the conversation, having brokered negotiations months after toppling Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Notably absent from the US-backed talks are opposition leaders María Corina Machado and former presidential candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, who remain in exile. Both sides say the talks will cover three main points: responding to the deadly earthquakes in June, strengthening democracy and guaranteeing political rights. In January 2023, former opposition deputies of the 2015 National Assembly elected her as president of the legislative body. Machado left Venezuela in December to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway after more than a year in hiding.