Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro met Pope Francis on Monday as the Vatican took a more active role trying to defuse a tense political standoff in the South American nation.
Maduro spoke with the Pope in a private meeting on his way back to Venezuela following a tour of oil-producing nations of the Middle East.
As news of the surprise papal meeting surfaced, back in Venezuela Mgr Emil Paul Tscherrig, who Francis dispatched in a bid to initiate dialogue between the government and the opposition, announced that representatives of the two sides would meet on October 30 on the Venezuelan island of Margarita under the auspices of the Vatican and the Union of South American Nations.
