WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has notified Congress that it is taking the first steps to possibly reopen the shuttered U.S. Embassy in Venezuela as it explores restoring relations with the South American country following the U.S. military raid that ousted then-President Nicolás Maduro.
In a notice to lawmakers dated Monday and obtained by The Associated Press on Tuesday, the State Department said it was sending in a regular and growing contingent of temporary staffers to conduct “select” diplomatic functions.
“We are writing to notify the committee of the Department of State’s intent to implement a phased approach to potentially resume Embassy Caracas operations,” the department said in separate but identical letters to 10 House and Senate committees.
The notification, sent to Capitol Hill just two days before Secretary of State Marco Rubio i s due to testify on Venezuela before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the staffers would live and work in a temporary facility while the existing embassy compound is brought up to standard.
It is the first formal notice of the administration’s intent to re-open the embassy in Caracas. Such a move would be key to the restoration of diplomatic relations between the two countries, which have been broken since March 2019 when the embassy was shuttered.
The Trump administration has moved slowly but surely to try to normalize ties with Maduro’s successor and current acting President Delcy Rodríguez. However, doing so would require the U.S. to revoke its decision to recognize the Venezuelan parliament elected in 2015 as the legitimate government.
Rodríguez on Tuesday said her government and the Trump administration “have established respectful and courteous channels of communication” since Jan. 3, when Maduro was captured.
She did not address the U.S. government’s first steps to possibly reopen its embassy, but during her televised remarks from a public hospital tour, Rodríguez said she is working with President Donald Trump and Rubio to set “a working agenda.”
Shortly after the military operation that deposed Maduro, a small team from the Venezuela Affairs Unit at the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, Colombia, traveled to Caracas to do an initial survey and appraise the prospects for re-opening the embassy.
Last week, the department named a Bogota-based career U.S. diplomat to serve as the charge d’affaires for Venezuela. In its notification, the department said the first phase would be the expanded deployment of temporary staff to Caracas.
“To support increased temporary duty personnel and the potential resumption of embassy operations, the Department of State may also need to open an interim or temporary facility in Caracas, Venezuela, to accommodate temporary duty personnel or operations while the existing facilities are brought to serviceable condition,” it said.
These diplomats would perform limited “select duties,” including security and management in the first phase, but gradually expand their work “to include consular, political, economic, management, security, and public diplomacy.” In addition, the Venezuela Affairs Unit now located in Bogota would move to Caracas.
Asked about the notice, the State Department replied that it is “is taking steps to prepare for the potential reopening of the embassy in Caracas should that decision be made. The congressional notification is part of that process to allow for those preparations to take place.”
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Regina Garcia Cano in Caracas, Venezuela, contributed.