Venezuelan rightwingers have sent representatives to negotiations with the government held in the Dominican Republic, despite previously vowing to boycott them unless its violent supporters were released from jail.

Delegations from socialist President Nicolas Maduro’s government and the Democratic Unity Roundtable (Mud) opposition coalition arrived on Wednesday.

Dominican President Danilo Medina said: “We are in the process of transforming an agenda that will lead to a definitive negotiation to the crisis.”

Government delegation leader Jorge Rodriguez, a former vice-president and current mayor of Caracas’s Libertador municipality, said: “We are close to reaching an agreement with the opposition on decisive points, we are in a prime moment of dialogue.”

Also with the government team was former foreign minister Delcy Rodriguez, now president of the new national constituent assembly, set up to to rewrite Venezuela’s constitution.

“We have come here with a flag of peace,” she said.

The rightwingers were led by parliamentary speaker Julio Borges, of the hard-line Justice First party, which unlike the rest of the coalition also plans to boycott local elections next month.

It is hoped that the summit could mark a turning point for Venezuela after months of deadly protests staged by the Mud, determined to force out the government before next year’s presidential election.

The talks had been stalled since February by a boycott by the Mud.

Former Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Zapatero, one of several international mediators in the original talks launched last year, said he had “great confidence” in the Dominican mediators.