After President’s Capture, U.S. and Venezuela Explore Restoring Diplomatic Ties

In moves that embodied the contradictions and fast-changing nature of the two countries’ relationship, both said on Friday that they were eyeing reopening embassies and restoring long-severed diplomatic ties.The Caracas" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="9456" data-entity-type="organization">United States Embassy in Caracas, Venezuela, in 2019.Credit...Meridith Kohut for The New York TimesJan. 9, 2026, 10:12 p.m. ETLess than a week after the United States snatched its president under cover of night, Venezuela said it was exploring restoring diplomatic ties and sending a delegation to Washington to check on its long-shuttered embassy, according to a statement from the interim president, Delcy Rodríguez.Her government and President Trump’s, according to Ms. Rodríguez, had decided to “initiate an exploratory diplomatic process” that was “aimed at the re-establishment of diplomatic missions in both countries.”On Friday, U.S. diplomats visited Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, to assess a “potential” resumption of embassy operations for the first time in nearly seven years, a spokeswoman for the State Department confirmed.The announcements on Friday appeared to represent only tentative first steps, and the relationship between the two countries is changing daily, experts noted.But news of the possible restoration of diplomatic ties drew attention not only for the breakneck pace at which the two countries’ relationship was evolving, but also because of the head-spinning contradictions it seemed to embody.It came as Mr. Trump said he was getting along “extremely well” with Venezuela’s government, even though that government is more or less the same government it was a week ago — minus President Nicolás Maduro — when Mr. Trump was mounting his intense pressure campaign.And it came as Vice President JD Vance celebrated that the U.S. military had been “empowered” by Mr. Trump to go after drug cartels — presumably the same groups that a federal indictment said worked closely with the Venezuelan government.To add to the contradictions, Ms. Rodríguez announced the move in a statement that began by denouncing the “kidnapping” of Mr. Maduro and a U.S. operation that she said had resulted in dozens of deaths and represented a flagrant violation of the “international legal order.”She added that Venezuela was beginning the “diplomatic exploratory process” in order to “address the consequences arising from the aggression and the kidnapping of the president of the republic and the first lady, as well as to pursue a working agenda of mutual interest.”On Friday, Mr. Trump was prodding American energy executives to quickly tap Venezuela’s vast oil reserves, and the United States military intercepted another tanker carrying Venezuelan oil.The U.S. Embassy in Caracas has been closed since early 2019, when Mr. Maduro expelled U.S. diplomats there in response to Washington’s recognition of the opposition leader, Juan Guaidó, as interim president after an election that the United States criticized as anti-democratic. Mr. Maduro closed the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, a trim brick building in the Georgetown neighborhood, at the same time.In Caracas, the U.S. Embassy occupies a sprawling but nondescript building, more functional than grand, in a posh hillside neighborhood. Once, it was thronged by people lining up to wait for U.S. visas and hosted a well-known Fourth of July party involving the Marines.For years, it has been dark.Elliott Abrams, a former U.S. envoy to Venezuela in the first Trump administration, said reopening the embassy was not just a matter of “flipping a switch” but instead presented practical hurdles — from the mold that may have blossomed in Caracas’s muggy climate, to diplomats’ safety in Caracas — as well as possible legal ones.Potentially resuming diplomatic relations with Venezuela, he said, raised the question of whether the United States would now recognize Ms. Rodríguez as the legitimate head of state.“If Delcy Rodríguez, who was appointed vice president by Maduro, is the legitimate interim president, doesn’t that mean that you think Nicolás Maduro was a legitimate president?” he said. “And if you do, doesn’t that affect his trial?“Does he have head-of-state immunity?” Mr. Abrams added, referring to a principle in international law that safeguards sitting leaders from criminal prosecution in foreign courts.Legal experts said the United States has in some cases maintained diplomatic relations with a country without recognizing its leader as legitimate.According to the U.S. State Department spokeswoman, diplomats and security staff members from the Venezuela Affairs Unit of the U.S. Embassy in Colombia, including chargé d’affaires, John T. McNamara, had arrived in Caracas on Friday to “conduct an initial assessment for a potential phased resumption of operations.”Flight-tracking data showed that two U.S.-registered planes traveled to Venezuela from Colombia and the United States this week, with stops on the island of Curacao.Venezuela’s government did not immediately respond to a request to comment on the announcement and to the question of who would travel to Washington as part of its delegation. But Ms. Rodríguez’s communications minister, Freddy Ñáñez, said in a social media post that the interim president herself had no plans to leave the country and would be focused on internal matters. On Friday, Ms. Rodríguez posted her own message saying she had spoken to left-wing leaders in Latin America and Spain about the “armed attacks against our territory” — but also what she called the “need to advance a broad agenda for bilateral cooperation.”Anatoly Kurmanaev, Riley Mellen and Sheyla Urdaneta contributed reporting.Annie Correal is a Times reporter covering Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.SKIP