VATICAN-mediated talks between Venezuela’s socialist government and US-backed opposition got under way on Sunday night.

But 15 affiliate parties of the Democratic Unity Roundtable (Mud) coalition shunned the negotiating table.

Instead they penned a joint letter to Mud secretary-general Jesus Torrealba, demanding that he only negotiate United Socialist Party (PSUV) President Nicolas Maduro’s overthrow and the release of several political activists.