The Trump administration has notified Congress that it is taking the first steps to possibly reopen the shuttered U.S. Embassy in Venezuela by sending in a regular contingent of temporary staffers to conduct \u201cselect\u201d diplomatic functions.<\/b>
\nThe Trump administration has notified Congress that it is taking the first steps to possibly reopen the shuttered U.S. Embassy in Venezuela as it explores restoring relations with the South American country following the U.S. military raid that ousted then-President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.
In a notice to lawmakers dated Monday and obtained by The Associated Press on Tuesday, the State Department said it was sending in a regular and growing contingent of temporary staffers to conduct \u201cselect\u201d diplomatic functions.
\u201cWe are writing to notify the committee of the Department of State\u2019s intent to implement a phased approach to potentially resume Embassy Caracas operations,\u201d the department said in separate but identical letters to 10 House and Senate committees.
The notification, sent to Capitol Hill just two days before Secretary of State Marco Rubio is due to testify on Venezuela before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the staffers would live and work in a temporary facility while the existing embassy compound is brought up to standard.
It is the first formal notice of the administration\u2019s intent to reopen the embassy in Caracas. Such a move would be key to the restoration of diplomatic relations between the two countries, which have been broken since March 2019 when the embassy was shuttered.
The Trump administration has moved slowly but surely to try to normalize ties with Maduro\u2019s successor and current acting President Delcy Rodriguez. However, doing so would require the U.S. to revoke its decision to recognize the Venezuelan parliament elected in 2015 as the legitimate government.
Shortly after the military operation that deposed Maduro on Jan. 1, a small team from the Venezuela Affairs Unit at the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, Colombia, traveled to Caracas to do an initial survey and appraise the prospects for re-opening the embassy.
Last week, the department named a Bogota-based career U.S. diplomat to serve as the charge d\u2019affaires for Venezuela. In its notification, the department said the first phase would be the expanded deployment of temporary staff to Caracas.
\u201cTo support increased temporary duty personnel and the potential resumption of embassy operations, the Department of State may also need to open an interim or temporary facility in Caracas, Venezuela, to accommodate temporary duty personnel or operations while the existing facilities are brought to serviceable condition,\u201d it said.
These diplomats would perform limited \u201cselect duties,\u201d including security and management in the first phase, but gradually expand their work \u201cto include consular, political, economic, management, security, and public diplomacy.\u201d In addition, the Venezuela Affairs Unit now located in Bogota would move to Caracas.<\/p>\n