The interim president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, stated this Tuesday, 27, that the United States began to unlock Venezuelan resources that were frozen by sanctions. According to her, the release will allow priority investments in the country.
“We are releasing resources from Venezuela, which belong to the Venezuelan people,” Rodríguez said in a speech on state television, after being sworn in as interim president following the capture of Nicolás Maduro. “This will allow us to invest important resources in equipment for hospitals, materials that we purchase in the United States and other countries,” he added.
The declaration comes amid signs of diplomatic rapprochement between Caracas and Washington. President Donald Trump’s administration has notified Congress that it is taking the first steps to possibly reopen the US embassy in Venezuela, closed since March 2019, as it assesses the restoration of bilateral relations following the US military operation that ousted Maduro.
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In a statement to lawmakers, the State Department said it is sending a regular and growing contingent of temporary employees to perform “select” diplomatic functions.
“We are writing to notify the committee of the Department of State’s intention to implement a phased approach to possibly resuming Embassy operations in Caracas,” the body said in identical letters forwarded to House and Senate committees.
The notification details that employees must initially live and work in temporary facilities while the embassy complex undergoes adaptations. This is the first formal communication from the American government about the intention to reopen diplomatic representation, a step considered fundamental for the normalization of relations between the two countries.
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Delcy said his government and the Trump administration “have established respectful and courteous channels of communication” since January 3, the date of Maduro’s capture. Although she did not directly comment on the possible reopening of the embassy, the interim president said, during a visit to a public hospital, that she is working with Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to define “a work agenda”.
