US diplomats visit Caracas to eye reopening embassy: official

Washington: Senior US diplomats travelled Friday to Caracas to look at reopening the embassy shuttered since 2019, following Washington s overthrow of...

Washington: Senior US diplomats travelled Friday to Caracas to look at reopening the embassy shuttered since 2019, following Washington's overthrow of leader Nicolas Maduro, a US official said.

John McNamara, the top US diplomat in neighboring Colombia, and other personnel "traveled to Caracas to conduct an initial assessment for a potential phased resumption of operations," a US official said on customary condition of anonymity.

The United States closed its embassy in Caracas and diplomats left in March 2019 shortly after Washington and a number of its European and Latin American allies declared Maduro to be illegitimate following an election that observers said was riddled with irregularities.

President Donald Trump on January 3 ordered a raid on Caracas in which US forces removed Maduro, who faces charges in the United States of drug trafficking, which he denies. Diplomats say that the United States has not yet made a formal decision to reopen the embassy, pending logistical concerns, but that it is preparing to do so once Trump gives the green light.

With the shuttering of the embassy in Caracas, the United States has run operations for Venezuela out of the embassy in neighboring Colombia, although it does not have a full-ranking ambassador in place in Bogota either.