Laura Dogu’s go to comes as Venezuela strikes to privatise its oil sector below strain from Trump.
Revealed On 1 Feb 2026
The highest United States envoy for Venezuela has arrived in Caracas to reopen a US diplomatic mission seven years after ties have been severed.
Laura Dogu introduced her arrival in a submit on X on Saturday, saying, “My workforce and I are able to work.”
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The transfer comes nearly one month after US forces abducted Venezuela’s then-president, Nicolas Maduro, from the presidential palace in Caracas, on the orders of US President Donald Trump.
Maduro was then taken to a jail in New York, and is dealing with drug trafficking and narcoterrorism conspiracy fees.
The transfer has been widely criticised as a violation of worldwide legislation.
Venezuelan Minister of Overseas Affairs Yvan Gil wrote on Telegram that he had obtained Dogu, and that talks would centre on making a “roadmap on issues of bilateral curiosity” in addition to “addressing and resolving current variations by means of diplomatic dialogue and on the premise of mutual respect and worldwide legislation”.
Dogu, who beforehand served as US ambassador to Honduras and Nicaragua, was appointed to the function of cost d’affaires to the Venezuela Affairs Unit, primarily based out of the US Embassy in Bogota, Colombia.
Venezuela and the US broke off diplomatic relations in February 2019, in a call by Maduro after Trump gave public assist to Venezuelan lawmaker Juan Guaido, who claimed to be the nation’s interim president in January that yr.
Minister of the In style Energy for Inside Diosdado Cabello, one in every of Venezuela’s strongest politicians and a Maduro loyalist, mentioned earlier in January that reopening the US embassy in Caracas would give the Venezuelan authorities a strategy to oversee the therapy of the deposed president.
Though the Trump administration has claimed that Maduro’s abduction was mandatory for safety causes, officers have additionally repeatedly framed their pursuits in Venezuela round controlling its huge oil reserves, that are the largest on this planet.
Because the abduction, Trump has pressured Interim President Delcy Rodriguez to open the nation’s nationalised oil sector to US companies.
The 2 nations have reached a deal to export up to $2bn price of Venezuelan crude to the US, and on Thursday, Rodriguez signed into law a reform invoice that may pave the way in which for elevated privatisation.
The laws offers non-public companies management over the sale and manufacturing of Venezuelan oil, and requires authorized disputes to be resolved outdoors of Venezuelan courts, a change lengthy sought by overseas corporations, which argue that the judicial system within the nation is dominated by the governing socialist social gathering.
The invoice would additionally cap royalties collected by the federal government at 30 p.c.
The Trump administration mentioned on the identical day that it might loosen some sanctions on Venezuela’s oil sector, and permit restricted transactions by the nation’s authorities and the state oil firm PDVSA that have been mandatory for a laundry checklist of export-related actions involving an “established US entity”.
Trump has introduced that he ordered the reopening of Venezuela’s industrial airspace and “knowledgeable” Rodriguez that US oil corporations would quickly arrive to discover potential tasks within the nation.
On Friday, Rodriguez announced an amnesty invoice aimed toward releasing lots of of prisoners within the nation, and mentioned she would shut down El Helicoide, an notorious secret service jail in Caracas, to get replaced with a sports activities and cultural centre.
That transfer was one of many key calls for of the Venezuelan opposition.
