CARACAS: The new head of the US diplomatic mission to Venezuela arrived in the country on Saturday and was welcomed by the South American country&#39;s foreign minister, as relations gradually warm after the ouster of Nicolas Maduro in a US military raid.&nbsp;&quot;I just arrived in Venezuela. My team and I are ready to work,&quot; Laura Dogu said in a post in Spanish on the US Embassy of Venezuela&#39;s X account, accompanied by photos of her disembarking a plane.&nbsp;Dogu, a former ambassador to Nicaragua and Honduras, was named last week as US charge d&#39;affaires in Venezuela. A charge d&#39;affaires is the head of a diplomatic mission in the absence of a full ambassador.&nbsp;Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil received Dogu after her arrival.&nbsp;Their meeting was part of an effort by Caracas to &quot;define a roadmap on questions of bilateral interest&quot; and address existing differences via diplomacy, the foreign ministry said in a statement.&nbsp;The United States has already sent a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/rubio-expects-us-diplomatic-presence-to-return-in-venezuela-soon" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">mission</a>&nbsp;to assess the embassy in Caracas, which has been largely unoccupied for the past six years.&nbsp;It was shuttered in 2019 shortly after Washington and other major powers declared Maduro to be illegitimate following a flawed election. Maduro then severed diplomatic relations with Washington.&nbsp;US forces attacked Venezuela on Jan. 3, capturing Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and taking them to New York for trial on US-issued drug trafficking charges.&nbsp;President Donald Trump says he is now&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/interim-venezuela-leader-to-visit-us" target="_blank">running</a>&nbsp;Venezuela and has allowed Maduro&#39;s vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, to be interim leader so long as she toes Washington&#39;s line -- in particular, granting US access to Venezuela&#39;s vast oil reserves.&nbsp;Since 2019, the US embassy has been largely deserted, other than a few local employees.&nbsp;Since last year, a charge d&#39;affaires for Venezuela, John McNamara, has been based in neighboring Colombia.&nbsp;McNamara travelled with other US diplomats to Caracas days after Maduro&#39;s ouster to assess &quot;a potential phased resumption of operations&quot; at the embassy.&nbsp;Trump has said he was working &quot;really well&quot; with Rodriguez, and a US official has said Rodriguez would visit the United States soon.&nbsp;Reforms in her first month at the helm of the country have included a proposal for a mass amnesty, plans to close the country&#39;s notorious El Helicoide prison in Caracas, and the passage of a new law opening the country&#39;s oil sector to private investment.&nbsp;US authorities on Friday announced that all Americans known to be held prisoner in Venezuela had been released.&nbsp;For years, Venezuela has routinely arrested foreigners and domestic opposition actors on a range of charges from spying to plotting attacks -- charges critics dismiss as fabricated.&nbsp;The Foro Penal rights group counts more than 700 political prisoners in Venezuela. Many of them are held at El Helicoide, which has been denounced as a torture center by the opposition and activists.&nbsp;Rodriguez has ordered it converted into a &quot;social, sports, cultural and commercial center.&quot;

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Laura Dogu arrives in Caracas. Venezuela’s foreign minister welcomed her as both countries work to restore ties and reopen the US embassy after Maduro’s ouster.

New head of US mission in Venezuela arrives as ties warm

WASHINGTON:&nbsp;Secretary of State Marco Rubio voiced hope Wednesday for cooperation with Venezuela after the US toppling of Nicolas Maduro and expected a reopening soon of the US embassy there, but brandished force if the interim leader is defiant. In prepared testimony for a Senate hearing, Rubio had written that Delcy Rodriguez, who was vice president and now acting president, &quot;is well aware of the fate of Maduro.&quot; &quot;Make no mistake, as the president has stated, we are prepared to use force to ensure maximum cooperation if other methods fail,&quot; read the prepared testimony, referring to President Donald Trump. Asked about his prepared testimony during his appearance, Rubio took a more measured tone. &quot;I can tell you right now with full certainty we are not postured to, nor do we intend or expect to, have to take any military action in Venezuela,&quot; Rubio told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. &quot;The only military presence you&#39;ll see in Venezuela is our Marine guards at an embassy,&quot; he said. Trump has demanded that Venezuela, which has the world&#39;s largest proven oil reserves, cooperate with US oil companies. The State Department last week named a senior diplomat, Laura Dogu, as the top diplomat for Venezuela, and earlier sent a mission to assess the embassy in Caracas. &quot;We think very quickly we&#39;ll be able to open a US diplomatic presence on the ground,&quot; Rubio told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The restored US mission &quot;will allow us to have real-time information&quot; and improve interaction with Venezuelan authorities as well as &quot;members of civil society, the opposition,&quot; Rubio said. The United States shuttered its embassy in 2019 shortly after Washington and other major powers declared Maduro to be illegitimate following an election marred by reports of irregularities. &#39;One dictator for another&#39;&nbsp;US commandoes raided Caracas on January 3 and seized Maduro, a longtime leftist nemesis of Washington, and his wife, Cilia Flores. The couple were flown to New York to stand trial on US-issued charges of drug trafficking, which they deny. Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that the operation has cost at least hundreds of millions of dollars, &quot;and yet the Maduro regime is essentially still in power.&quot; &quot;Her cooperation appears tactical and temporary, and not a real shift in Venezuela&#39;s alignment. In the process, we&#39;ve traded one dictator for another,&quot; Shaheen said. Senator Chris Van Hollen, another Democrat, pointed to Trump&#39;s meetings with oil executives and questioned if he ordered the attack for personal benefit. &quot;By any measure, this is the most corrupt administration in American history,&quot; he said. Venezuelan officials say more than 100 people died, both Venezuelans and Cubans who unsuccessfully tried to protect Maduro. Rubio called the tactical operation a success as no Americans died. Trump indicated hours after deposing Maduro that he favored working by pressuring Rodriguez rather than seeking to empower Venezuela&#39;s democratic opposition, dismissing its leader, Maria Corina Machado, as a &quot;very nice woman&quot; who did not command &quot;respect.&quot; But Trump sounded more favorable to Machado after she visited him at the White House and presented him with her Nobel Peace Prize, which she won last year despite Trump loudly coveting the prestigious honor. Rubio will hold a closed-door meeting on Wednesday with Machado, the State Department said. Rubio &mdash; a Cuban-American and fervent critic of Latin American leftists &mdash; had, as a senator, championed Machado&#39;s opposition forces. Rodriguez insisted Sunday that she has had enough of orders from Washington. But she has also worked to encourage US oil investment and said Tuesday that the United States was unblocking sanctioned Venezuela funds.&nbsp;

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US expects to reopen a diplomatic presence in Venezuela soon after Maduro’s ouster, appointing Laura Dogu to lead efforts and restore engagement with authorities, civil society and opposition.

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New head of US mission in Venezuela arrives as ties warm

Rubio expects US diplomatic presence to return in Venezuela soon