A N A LY S I S PEACE AND SECURITY VENEZUELA Towards a peaceful political solution Mónica Hirst, Carlos Luján, Carlos Romero and Juan Gabriel Tokatlian May 2019 This paper is a response to the high degree of apprehension felt at this critical point in the devel­opment of the Venezuelan crisis and the risks represented by a growing polarisation between political groupings in the country in view of the domestic, regional, and international ramifications. The proposals in this paper should be understood as an initi­ative seeking to add to the ef­forts directed at reversing the es­calation in tensions and contributing to a peaceful politi­cal solution to the crisis. Our objective is to show a path to encouraging open contact be­tween the government and the opposition in Venezuela, concen­trating primarily not on what would be desirable, but on what is possible.