VENEZUELA’s government said on Saturday that it had attended talks with the rightwing opposition — which vehemently denied it.

Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez and two other United Socialist Party (PSUV) leaders attended indirect negotiations in the Dominican Republic on Friday.

The opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (Mud) coalition, which won a two-thirds majority in the national assembly in December, was represented by MPs Alfonso Marquina and Timoteo Zambrano.

The meeting was mediated by former Dominican president Leonel Fernandez, Panama’s ex-president Martin Torrijos and former Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Zapatero.

The three ex-leaders flew to Venezuela last week to promote dialogue between President Nicolas Maduro’s government and the Mud.

Regional economic bloc Unasur’s secretary-general Ernesto Samper — who has opposed the legislative coup in Brazil — was also present, and the organisation released a statement confirming the talks on Saturday.

Ms Rodriguez confirmed the “first meetings for a dialogue between the government and the opposition” via Twitter.

But Mud secretary-general Jesus Torrealba tweeted back the same day: “There is no government-opposition meeting in Dominica.

“Mud representatives attended a meeting with Zapatero, Torrijos and Fernandez.”

Mr Torrealba later said the two deputies would give a detailed report of the “steps to be taken” on their return.

The Mud is engaged in collecting the four million signatories to a petition that would trigger a presidential recall referendum, part of a three-pronged “roadmap” to unseat Mr Maduro that could involve a return to 2014’s “guarimba” street violence.

Ms Rodriguez paid tribute to retired major general Felix Velasquez, a senior military officer under Mr Maduro’s predecessor Hugo Chavez, who was assassinated in front of his five-year-old granddaughter in Caracas on Saturday by two unidentified gunmen.

Mr Zapatero’s successor, conservative Peoples’ Party (PP) Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, declared Venezuela a threat to Spain’s security on Friday during a session of the national security council, echoing US President Barack Obama’s equally aggressive move last year.

Earlier this month former PP prime minister Jose Maria Aznar and 23 Latin American ex-presidents signed a declaration from Mr Aznar’s conservative FAES think tank claiming that the constitutional order had broken down in Venezuela and that the government was persecuting the opposition.

Mr Samper also met Pope Francis this week to ask the Vatican to act as mediator.

Yesterday German airline Lufthansa said it was suspending its three weekly services from Frankfurt to Caracas because of Venezuela’s economic situation and difficulties in transferring currency.

Venezuela has imposed exchange-rate controls in response to rampant inflation caused by black-market currency dealing and market speculation.