On Friday of last week two US-registered planes landed in Caracas, despite air traffic restrictions in place since the United States snatched Venezuela’s president under cover of darkness a week previously.
On board were diplomats and security staff from the Venezuela affairs unit of the US embassy in Colombia, including charge d’affaires, John T McNamara.
Their arrival marked the tentative first steps towards restoring diplomatic ties between both countries for the first time in seven years.
A US state department spokesman said the delegation was conducting “an initial assessment for a potential phased resumption of operations.”
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And on Thursday of this week came another unexpected arrival: CIA director, John Ratcliffe, the most senior US official, and first cabinet member, to visit Venezuela since the raid on Maduro.
He reportedly met with Delcy Rodríguez, the interim president of Venezuela, in Caracas, reinforcing the Trump administration’s message that it sees the interim government as the best path to stability in the country in the short term.
The meeting came a day after US president Donald Trump spoke to Rodríguez by phone and on the same day he met with María Corina Machado, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and leader of Venezuela’s opposition.
The news shows the breakneck speed at which the relationship between both countries is developing, as well as some of the dizzying contradictions it seems to involve.
While a few weeks ago Trump blamed Venezuela for “emptying their prisons” into the US and flooding the country with drugs, in recent days he said he was getting along “extremely well” with Venezuela’s government, even though it is broadly the same as it was a fortnight week ago – minus president Nicolás Maduro.
The diplomatic gymnastics extend to Rodríguez, who indicated that dialogue with the US would seek to normalise diplomatic ties, while at the same time criticising the Trump administration over the arrest of Maduro and first lady Cilia Flores.
She said her government and president Donald Trump’s had decided to “initiate an exploratory diplomatic process” that was “aimed at the re-establishment of diplomatic missions in both countries”.
In Caracas, the US embassy occupies a sprawling building in the upmarket neighbourhood of Valle Arriba to the east of the city.
US staff arrived at the shuttered building that has served as the diplomatic headquarters of the country considered Venezuela’s largest trading partner for most of the 20th century on Friday of last week without speaking to the media.
The embassy has loomed large in relations with Venezuela over the years. The first US ambassador to confront “Chavismo” was John Maisto (1997-2000), who advocated a policy of “observing what Chávez does, not what he says”.
A turning point in relations came during a coup attempt in 2002 when the then president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, was ousted from office for two days, before being restored to power.
The then US ambassador, Charles Shapiro, was seen alongside the interim president Pedro Carmona Estanga a day after the coup – an event interpreted by Chavismo as proof of Washington’s complicity in the breakdown of constitutional order.
Relations collapsed in 2010 when Venezuela rejected the appointment of Larry Palmer as ambassador, which led the US to revoke the visa of the Venezuelan ambassador, Bernardo Álvarez, before ties were severed completely in 2019 when Maduro ordered the departure of all US personnel.
As if to underscore the fragile nature of relations, the US delegation did not stay for long when it arrived last week – it returned to Bogotá in Colombia on the same day.
Hours after the visit, the US administration sent an alert to their citizens: “The US Embassy in Bogotá, Colombia, warns US citizens not to travel to Venezuela, reiterating warnings against travel to Venezuela dating to 2019. As international flights have resumed, US citizens in Venezuela should leave the country immediately. (...) Before departure, US citizens should take precautions and be aware of their surroundings. There are reports of groups of armed militias, known as colectivos, setting up roadblocks and searching vehicles for evidence of US citizenship or support for the United States. US citizens in Venezuela should remain vigilant and exercise caution when travelling abroad.”
The Venezuelan foreign ministry rejected the warnings in the US “security alert”, arguing that it was based on non-existent relationships and designed to create a perception of risk that did not correspond to the country’s reality.
In an official statement, Venezuela’s ministry of foreign affairs said the country was in a “state of calm, peace, and stability” throughout its national territory.
