USA he said on Wednesday that the last trip of a delegation from the country to Venezuela was focused “on the well-being of American citizens.”
Nicolás Maduro announced the visit of US officials on Monday to address a “bilateral agenda”, while the opposition claims to have spoken with them separately to try to promote the resumption of negotiations with the government.
According to the State Department, the delegation included Roger Carstens, special envoy for hostage affairs; Y Jimmy Storythe US ambassador to Venezuela, who is based in Colombia instead of Caracas because Washington considers opposition leader Juan Guaidó as interim president since Maduro’s re-election.
Well-being of Americans
The trip to Caracas was “to discuss the welfare and safety of US citizens in Venezuela,” a State Department spokesman said.
It came days after the family of imprisoned former US Marine Matthew Heath said he had attempted suicide and complained that the US government had not reacted quickly to concerns about his condition.
Heath was arrested in September 2020 and charged with terrorism. Venezuelan authorities maintain that he possessed weapons intended to destabilize the country.
The United States claims that Heath was wrongfully detained. Two other Americans were released in March after a visit by Biden administration officials to Caracas.
Former US President Donald Trump led a pressure campaign in 2019 in a failed attempt to remove Maduro, a leftist at the helm of a crumbling economy, from power following allegations of fraud in the elections in which he was re-elected in 2018. .
The administration of President Joe Biden has not recognized Maduro but has tried to recalibrate the strategy and has proposed easing sanctions if the government reconciles with the opposition.
Biden did not invite Maduro or Guaidó to the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles in early June, although the opposition leader’s wife, Fabiana Rosales, later visited the White House.
