US reopens embassy in Venezuela in significant thawing of relations

The US government is resuming operations at its embassy in Venezuela, the state department announced on Monday, nearly three months since former president Nicolás Maduro was abducted from the country and locked up in the US.The resumption of US diplomatic operations in Venezuela marks a significant step in the US-Venezuela relationship, as the Trump administration begins to work closely with the government of Delcy Rodríguez, the acting president who replaced Maduro after his forcible ousting by US troops. Rodríguez was Maduro’s vice-president.The US embassy in Venezuela has not been operational since March 2019.Heightening tension between both countries, escalating for decades, led to the rupture of diplomatic relations between the two. The US government has not had an ambassador in Venezuela since 2010.In 2018, Maduro expelled the charge d’affairs in Venezuela, leading to the US government to withdraw all its diplomatic personnel from the country the following year. Since then, US relations towards Venezuela have been carried out from the US embassy in neighboring Colombia.Many of the typical US government operations housed in the embassy, including law enforcement investigations, also had to be performed from outside the country.Following the US military’s invasion of Venezuela and abduction of Maduro and his wife, the US has been working to forge ties to the country.“Today, we are formally resuming operations at the US embassy in Caracas, marking a new chapter in our diplomatic presence in Venezuela”, a state department spokesperson announced.The US government has accused Maduro and other high-ranking Venezuelan officials of participating in drug trafficking and of providing cover to other Latin American criminal groups. The Delta Force raid that led to Maduro’s capture earlier this year, based on a federal indictment, was widely condemned internationally.Maduro and his wife are currently sitting inside a federal prison in New York, waiting for their court case to proceed.Since the abduction, Laura F Dogu, a longtime US diplomat and intelligence official who served as US ambassador to Honduras and Nicaragua, has been in Caracas, working to restore the US embassy in the country. Dogu is the current charge d’affaires to Venezuela.“Dogu’s team is restoring the chancery building at the US embassy in Caracas to prepare for the full return of personnel as soon as possible and the eventual resumption of consular services,” the state department said. “The resumption of operations at US embassy Caracas is a key milestone in implementing the president’s three‑phase plan for Venezuela and will strengthen our ability to engage directly with Venezuela’s interim government, civil society and the private sector.”