US and Venezuela take first steps toward restoring relations after Maduro's ouster

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GUATIRE, Venezuela (AP) — The United States and Venezuela said Friday they were exploring the possibility of restoring relations, as a Trump administration delegation visited the South American nation.

The visit marks a major step toward reestablishing diplomatic ties between the historically adversarial governments. In a brazen intervention last weekend, the U.S. military captured former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro last weekend from his compound in Caracas and flew him to New York to face federal charges of drug-trafficking.

A small team of U.S. diplomats and a security detail traveled to Venezuela to make a preliminary assessment about the potential reopening of the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, the State Department said in a statement.

Venezuela’s government on Friday said it plans to send a delegation to the U.S. but it did not say when. Any delegation from the country traveling to the U.S. will likely require sanctions to be waived by the Treasury Department.

The government of acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez said it “has decided to initiate an exploratory process of a diplomatic nature" with the U.S., "aimed at the re-establishment of diplomatic missions in both countries."

Rodríguez is engaged in a delicate balancing act, under pressure to meet the Trump administration’s demands and also win the support of Venezuela's military hard-liners outraged over the U.S. seizure of Maduro.

Her statements on Friday laid bare that tension.

Relating her telephone conversations with the left-wing presidents of Brazil, Colombia and Spain, she condemned Washington's “grave, criminal, illegal, and illegitimate aggression” against her country.

Later, in televised remarks at the inauguration of a small women’s health clinic in downtown Caracas, she emphasized diplomacy with Trump as the best way to defend Venezuela and even “ensure the return of President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores.”

“We will meet face-to-face in diplomacy ... to defend the peace of Venezuela, the stability of Venezuela, the future, to defend our independence and to defend our sacred and inalienable sovereignty,” Rodríguez said without mentioning the possible resumption of operations at the U.S. embassy.

President Donald Trump has sought to coerce Rodriguez and other former Maduro loyalists still in power to advance his vision for U.S. control of Venezuela's lucrative oil exports. The South American country has the world's largest proven crude reserves.

The U.S. and Venezuela severed ties during Trump's first term in 2019. The U.S. insistence that opposition leader Juan Guaidó was the rightful president of Venezuela enraged Maduro, who maintained his firm grip on power.

That year, the Trump administration shuttered the embassy in Caracas and moved diplomats to nearby Bogotá, Colombia.

U.S. officials have traveled to Caracas just a handful of times since.

The latest visit came last February when Trump's envoy for special missions, Richard Grenell, met with Maduro, paving the way for Venezuela's release of six detained Americans.

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Lee reported from Washington. Megan Janetsky contributed to this report from Mexico City.

Follow the AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america