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The United States has reopened its embassy in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, after a seven-year hiatus, the United States said, as President Donald Trump deepens ties with the South American country’s new government.
The U.S. Embassy announced in a social media post Saturday that the flag was once again raised above the embassy in a ceremony marking the resumption of diplomatic operations in Venezuela.
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“On the morning of March 14, 2019, the Star-Spangled Flag was lowered for the last time at the U.S. Embassy in Caracas. This morning, March 14, 2026, at the same time, my team and I raised the Star-Spangled Banner, exactly seven years after lowering it,” Chargé d’Affaires Laura Dogou said in a post.
“A new era in U.S.-Venezuela relations has begun. Let’s move forward together with Venezuela.”
The United States restored diplomatic relations earlier this month, and Dogu, the embassy’s most senior diplomat, added that the United States is committed to “maintaining our relationship with Venezuela.”
The Trump administration has held up Venezuela as a model for regime change in other countries, including Iran, which is at odds with the United States.
The new diplomatic ties come after the United States launched a deadly military operation inside Venezuelan territory on January 3, leading to the abduction of former President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
After Maduro’s ouster, former Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, a leader of the Socialist Party, became interim president with President Trump’s approval.
But the Trump administration has asked Rodriguez’s administration for several concessions, including access to the country’s vast oil reserves and other natural resources.
In response, Rodriguez defended legislation that would open up the nationalized oil and mining sectors to foreign investment.
The country also put about 80 million barrels of oil into the hands of the United States, which was later sold by the Trump administration.
President Trump and his allies are positioning these developments as the beginning of a new era of friendship with Venezuela after years of tension between Caracas and Washington.
But critics point to Trump’s threats to Rodriguez as evidence of potential coercion.
“If she doesn’t do the right thing, she’s probably going to pay a bigger price than President Maduro,” Trump said in an interview with The Atlantic on January 4.
Prior to Maduro’s abduction, President Trump and his advisers, including Stephen Miller, had argued that Venezuelan oil was actually US property, given the history of US oil exploration in the region and the 2007 push to expropriate property from US companies such as ExxonMobil.
“The sweat, ingenuity, and toil of Americans created Venezuela’s oil industry,” Miller wrote on social media in December. “That tyrannical expropriation was the greatest theft on record of American wealth and property.”
But legal experts argue that such a statement means an erasure of Venezuela’s sovereignty. International law guarantees each country “permanent sovereignty” over its natural resources.
But the Trump administration has openly talked about controlling Venezuela’s resources “indefinitely.”
“Essentially we’re going to do it,” President Trump said of Venezuela in a speech on January 3.
The United States maintains effective control over Venezuela’s oil sales, even blocking fuel trade with Cuba.
Meanwhile, proceeds from U.S.-led oil sales will be deposited in U.S.-controlled bank accounts and distributed between the two countries.
Rodriguez on Friday called on President Trump to ease remaining U.S. sanctions on Venezuela to open the door to improving the country’s economic situation.
