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.”