What We're Tracking Venezuelan government launches talks with opposition members. Jorge Rodriguez, the president of Venezuela's National Assembly, and Dinorah Figuera, who represents an opposition bloc that controlled the legislature from 2015 to 2020, will start a dialogue process, with working groups scheduled to convene on Aug. 1. Rodriguez is the brother of acting President Delcy Rodriguez, while Figuera returned to Caracas after eight years of exile in July with Washington's backing. The group Figuera leads is different from that of Maria Corina Machado, being more pragmatic and less ideological, less prone to push for an overly confrontational stance against current regime members, and favoring negotiations over mass mobilization. On July 20, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that the U.S. government will be "very involved" in these negotiations, which will not include Machado.