New head of US mission in Venezuela arrives as ties warm

Caracas: The new head of the US diplomatic mission to Venezuela arrived in the country on Saturday as relations gradually resume after the ouster of N...

Caracas: The new head of the US diplomatic mission to Venezuela arrived in the country on Saturday as relations gradually resume after the ouster of Nicolas Maduro in a US military raid.

The plane from Bogota carrying the new US charge d'affaires Laura Dogu landed at the airport serving Caracas around 3pm local time (1900 GMT), a diplomatic source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Dogu, a former ambassador to Nicaragua and Honduras, was named to the position last week. A charge d'affaires is the head of a diplomatic mission in the absence of a full ambassador.

The United States has already sent a mission to assess the embassy, which has been largely unoccupied for the past six years.

It was shuttered in 2019 shortly after Washington and other major powers declared Maduro to be illegitimate following a flawed election. Maduro then severed diplomatic relations with Washington.