President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela and leaders of a coalition of opposition political parties held a dramatic televised meeting on Thursday in a first step aimed at defusing tensions that have escalated during more than two months of antigovernment protests. The meeting was brokered by a group of South American foreign ministers who exerted pressure on both sides to come to the table in the hopes of averting further violence in the protests, which have cost 40 lives, according to a government count. Underscoring the urgency of the situation, local news media reported that a police officer in Barquisimeto, a city in western Venezuela, died after being shot on Wednesday night in a confrontation that appeared to be linked to a protest. The ministers were trying to get Venezuelans to do what they had not been able to do on their own: bridge the country’s bitter political rift. Although […]