Trump moves forward with plans to reopen his embassy in Venezuela

The Trump administration is acting quickly to re-establish the diplomatic presence in Venezuela, requesting local staff to prepare for the arrival of U.S. officials at their embassy in Caracas this very week.

An official date for the reopening of the embassy has not been set, according to people involved, who asked not to be identified because the conversations are private. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

When reporters aboard Air Force One asked him about the possibility of reopening the embassy on Sunday, President Donald Trump said: “We are considering it”.

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The chosen moment highlights the speed with which Washington seeks to re-establish relations after the swearing-in of Delcy Rodríguez as interim president on Monday, a few days after a US air strike resulted in the arrest of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife. The state oil company PDVSA already announced on Wednesday that it is in talks to sell a large volume of crude oil to the United States. The imposing US embassy is located on top of a lush hill in the Valle Arriba neighborhood, east of Caracas. With an extension equivalent to two soccer fields, the building is visible from much of the city. It was inaugurated in 1995, after a four-year construction process that cost almost 13 million dollars. At its peak, in the mid-2000s, nearly 500 employees and contractors from as many as nine U.S. agencies worked there, including the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Department of Homeland Security. A large American flag flew in front of the complex until the United States suspended its operations in 2019. It was then that Trump, during his first term, declared Maduro’s re-election the previous year illegitimate and, instead, recognized opposition deputy Juan Guaidó as president of the country. Since then, the US embassy in Colombia has taken over responsibilities in Venezuela.