Venezuela’s right-wing opposition said yesterday that it had pulled out of talks with the government, even as the president said they were going ahead.

Hard-line factions of the Democratic Unity Roundtable (Mud) coalition apparently won out as a spokesman said its delegation would not return to the internationally mediated negotiations in the Dominican Republic.

The Mud claimed the government had not met human rights and electoral guarantees, and that President Nicolas Maduro had not name a promised third observer nation for full talks.

The two sides returned to dialogue, brokered by the caribbean nation’s President Danilo Medina and former Spanish PM Jose Luis Zapatero, on September 13 — six weeks after the end of opposition riots that left 124 dead.

On Monday masked militants made a brief return to the streets of Caracas, mounting an ineffective roadblock in the Chacao district.

On Tuesday US President Donald Trump expressed “hope” that the EU would join his country, Canada and some Washington-friendly Latin American governments in placing sanctions on the “Maduro regime.”

He made his comments at White House press conference with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who agreed: “The international community should be forceful with regards to Venezuela.”

On a visit to the Libertador air base outside Maracay city west of Caracas, Mr Maduro urged troops to show “maximum loyalty” in defence of the revolutionary ideas of late president Hugo Chavez and 19th-century liberator Simon Bolivar.