Caracas and Washington have once again expressed their willingness to dialogue, this time in the midst of the United States military deployment in Caribbean waters near Venezuela that has increased tension between these countries, which have accumulated more than two decades of disagreements and almost a seven-year period without diplomatic relations, broken in January 2019.
In recent years, Miraflores and the White House have had several contacts, some with the Venezuelan opposition involved, with results, for the most part, in favor of the interests of each country.
Below are seven episodes of the intermittent contacts and their fruits:
Energy security
In March 2022, in the midst of a spike in oil prices due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a delegation from then-president Joe Biden visited Venezuela to talk about energy security and the six former executives of Citgo – a subsidiary of the state-owned PDVSA in the United States – who had been detained since 2017.
As a result of what the White House described as the highest-ranking trip to Caracas in more than two decades, Cuban-American Jorge Alberto Fernández, detained in 2021, and Gustavo Adolfo Cárdenas, a former Citgo official, were released. Washington later clarified that it made no concessions and that it still did not recognize Nicolás Maduro as “the leader of Venezuela.”
Prisoner exchange
In June 2022, Maduro reported the visit of an “important delegation” from the United States to continue the talks that began in March and continue “the bilateral agenda.”
On October 1, the United States freed two nephews of Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, sentenced in December 2017 in a New York court to 18 years in prison for drug trafficking, in exchange for the release of seven prisoners in Venezuela, including five former Citgo executives and retired Marine Matthew Heath.
The return of Chevron
In 2022, Washington announced that it would lift some of its sanctions on Venezuela, including the ban on the oil company Chevron from negotiating with PDVSA, to try to reactivate the dialogue in Mexico between the opposition and Chavismo, suspended in October 2021 by decision of Caracas, after the extradition to the United States of the Colombian businessman Alex Saab, a close collaborator of Maduro.
In November of that year, the Chavista government and the opposition resumed their talks, which led the United States to authorize Chevron to resume limited extraction operations in Venezuela, as part, according to the Treasury Department, of a policy aimed at “the restoration of democracy.”
“Orderly, safe and legal” repatriation
In October 2023, both countries signed an agreement on migration to carry out, in an “orderly, safe and legal” manner, flights to repatriate Venezuelans from the United States, the Maduro Government reported then.
In a statement, he noted that the agreement was reached after several “sustained conversations” with US authorities. That same month, Caracas assured that, during 2023, it carried out “negotiations with representatives of Washington and with the different oppositions in Venezuela” with the aim of “healing the social wounds caused by the illegitimate economic aggression.”
Lifting of sanctions
Also in October, the United States announced a six-month lifting of sanctions, after the Maduro government and the opposition Unitary Platform signed an agreement in Barbados on guarantees for the 2024 presidential elections. Once the deadline expired, the Treasury Department decided not to renew the relief.
In August 2024, Maduro assured that, as discussed the previous year, the United States had committed to unblocking “the assets of the Venezuelan Government” and lifting “all sanctions”, in accordance with “the minutes of that negotiation” shared then by the Chavista, which also established the normalization of relations.
Saab’s freedom
In December 2023, the United States handed over to Caracas Alex Saab, who was facing federal charges for the alleged laundering of up to $350 million in fraud, in exchange for the release of ten Americans and twenty Venezuelan political prisoners.
According to Maduro, who welcomed Saab with hugs, Qatar was the facilitator between Caracas and Washington. For its part, Doha celebrated the success of its mediation and stated that its efforts would continue to resolve the “pending issues” between both countries.
Reception of deportees
Shortly after Donald Trump’s return to the White House last January, Caracas and Washington signed an agreement for Venezuela to receive deported migrants, which has been maintained despite growing tensions due to the US military presence in the Caribbean.
The agreement was finalized during a visit to Caracas by Richard Grenell – Trump’s special envoy -, after which six US citizens who were detained in Venezuela were also released.
Last July, Venezuela released another ten Americans in exchange for the return of 252 Venezuelans imprisoned in El Salvador.
