This Monday (30), the United States officially resumed the operations of its embassy in Venezuela, after the Donald Trump administration and the interim regime of Delcy Rodríguez reestablished diplomatic relations between both countries, which had been severed since 2019.
“Today we formally resumed operations at the US Embassy in Caracas, which marks a new chapter in our diplomatic presence in Venezuela,” the US State Department announced in a statement.
Ambassador Laura Dogu arrived in Caracas last January as chargé d’affaires to lead the reopening of the American diplomatic mission.
The team led by Dogu is currently restoring the building to prepare for “the return of personnel as quickly as possible and the eventual resumption of consular services,” said the State Department, which did not detail the expected date for the return of these services.
The announcement came after, last week, a Venezuelan delegation led by chargé d’affaires, Félix Plasencia, visited Washington to meet with members of the Trump administration and receive control of the Venezuelan embassy in the US, held since 2023 by the State Department.
Since the capture of dictator Nicolás Maduro by American forces on January 3, the Trump administration and Delcy Rodríguez’s regime have brought closer positions and, in early March, formally reestablished diplomatic relations between the two countries.
According to Trump, the US exercises tutelage over the Chavista regime, which accepted Washington’s demands to open Venezuela’s oil and gold sector to American companies.
The USA and Venezuela broke relations in 2019, when the Trump administration, in its first term, recognized the opposition Juan Guaidó, then president of the National Assembly, as interim president of the country.
Since then, Washington’s diplomatic activities had been carried out through the Venezuela Affairs Unit, a temporary office located at the American embassy in Colombia.
US Embassy says it will seek to bring together businesspeople from both countries
The team responsible for the US embassy in Venezuela stated this Monday that it will seek to connect businesspeople from both countries, as well as maintain dialogue with all political and civil society sectors in the South American nation.
“My team and I are pleased to announce a major step forward in our mission: starting today, we are once again the US embassy in Caracas,” said the US chargé d’affaires in Venezuela, Laura Dogu, in a video posted on Instagram, shortly after the US State Department made the formal announcement of the resumption of operations.
Dogu also said that a new chapter is beginning in the bilateral relations of the two nations. “We are just getting started, there is much to be done as we continue to execute the Trump administration’s three-phase plan,” he added.
