{"id":506330,"date":"2026-03-06T01:58:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T01:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/506330\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T01:58:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T01:58:11","slug":"us-venezuela-agree-to-reestablish-diplomatic-relations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/506330\/","title":{"rendered":"US, Venezuela agree to reestablish diplomatic relations"},"content":{"rendered":"

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) \u2014 The United States and Venezuela<\/a> agreed to reestablish diplomatic relations in a major shift in a historically adversarial relationship, the State Department said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The move comes after rounds of Trump administration officials have visited the South American nation<\/a> following a U.S. military operation that deposed former President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a> in January. Since then, the Trump administration has been stepping up pressure on Maduro loyalists now in power to accept its vision for the oil-rich nation.<\/p>\n

Relations between the two countries were cut off in 2019, during the first Trump administration, in a decision by Maduro. They closed their embassies mutually after U.S. President Donald Trump gave public support to Venezuelan opposition lawmaker Juan Guaid\u00f3, who claimed to be the nation\u2019s interim president in January that year. That prompted U.S. diplomatic staff to move to neighboring Colombia.<\/p>\n

The State Department in a statement on Thursday said that talks between the countries were \u201cfocused on helping the Venezuelan people move forward through a phased process that creates the conditions for a peaceful transition to a democratically elected government.\u201d<\/p>\n

The announcement was made at the end of a two-day visit by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum<\/a> to Venezuela. The visit largely focused on the country\u2019s mining sector. It followed a February visit by Energy Secretary Chris Wright<\/a> that centered on Venezuela\u2019s oil potential. Both secretaries are aiming to shore up foreign investment to advance the administration\u2019s phased plan to turn around the crisis-wracked nation.<\/p>\n

Acting President Delcy Rodr\u00edguez, formerly Maduro\u2019s vice president, said on state televisions that such steps \u201cwill strengthen relations between our two countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rodr\u00edguez\u2019s government in a statement later expressed confidence that reestablishing diplomatic relations \u201cwill contribute to strengthening understanding and opening opportunities for a positive and mutually beneficial relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese relations ought to result in the social and economic happiness of the Venezuelan people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Since the unprecedented U.S. offensive in Venezuela, the Trump administration has pushed the government to make sweeping changes, including opening its oil sector to foreign companies. Rodr\u00edguez\u2019s government also approved an amnesty law<\/a> that has enabled the release of politicians, activists, lawyers and many others, effectively acknowledging that the government has held hundreds of people in prison for political motivations.<\/p>\n

Trump stunned Venezuelans in and outside their home country with his decision to work with Rodr\u00edguez, instead of the political opposition, following Maduro\u2019s ouster. On Sunday, Venezuela\u2019s top opposition leader and winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize<\/a> Mar\u00eda Corina Machado said that she will return to Venezuela<\/a> in the coming weeks and that elections will be held in Venezuela.<\/p>\n

Such seismic shifts would have been unthinkable just months before in the South American nation. Venezuela\u2019s main political current, known as Chavismo, has been able to dodge curve balls thrown at it for years, from U.S. sanctions to spiraling economic crisis.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Janetsky reported from Mexico City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) \u2014 The United States and Venezuela agreed to reestablish diplomatic relations in a major shift…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":506331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,1927,14271,3316,1930,12,5473,3321,793,3138,200772,230269,3140,80368,3,18231,18598,1924,192706,21,792,19,22,20,25,24,18232,18597,965],"class_list":{"0":"post-506330","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ap-top-news","10":"tag-central-america","11":"tag-christopher-wright","12":"tag-diplomacy","13":"tag-donald-trump","14":"tag-doug-burgum","15":"tag-energy-industry","16":"tag-general-news","17":"tag-government-and-politics","18":"tag-international-incidents","19":"tag-juan-guaido","20":"tag-latin-america","21":"tag-mara-corina-machado","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-nicolas-maduro","24":"tag-south-america","25":"tag-u-s-department-of-state","26":"tag-u-s-venezuela-conflict","27":"tag-united-states","28":"tag-united-states-government","29":"tag-united-states-of-america","30":"tag-unitedstates","31":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","32":"tag-us","33":"tag-usa","34":"tag-venezuela","35":"tag-venezuela-government","36":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}