Just when , , on the part of the United States, the cooperation between Caracas and Washington seems better greased every day. Who has seen them and who sees them. The best example, from last night, was the first official face-to-face between representatives of both states: the president in charge of Venezuela, and the US charge d’affaires in the Caribbean country, Laura Dogu, met in Caracas, just two days after the North American landed in the country to reopen her diplomatic mission.
The objective of the meeting was to address the three-phase plan proposed by the US President’s Administration on Venezuela, which consists of stabilization, recovery and a “democratic transition.” That is, rein in the new post-Maduro Government, which is still in the hands of Chavismo but with a leader like Delcy, former number two, who is bending to the interests of the White House one by one or, as she says, is betting on “cooperation.”
“Today I met with Delcy Rodríguez and Jorge Rodríguez to reiterate the three phases that the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, has proposed about Venezuela: stabilization, economic recovery and reconciliation, and transition,” said Dogu, according to a message published by the United States Embassy in Caracas in X.
The Venezuelan Minister of Communication, Miguel Ángel Pérez Pirela, pointed out that the meeting took place within the framework “of the work agenda between the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the United States of America”, without offering further details about what was discussed between the officials.
“Peace and respect”
After this meeting, the Venezuelan Government also announced the appointment of former Foreign Minister Félix Plasencia as diplomatic representative of Venezuela in the United States. Until now he was the head of the Venezuelan diplomatic mission in the United Kingdom. In the “next few days”, he will travel with his team to Washington, confirms the Rodríguez Government.
The Foreign Minister of Venezuela, Yván Gil, indicated, in statements to the state channel Venezolana de Televisión (VTV), that with the appointment of Plasencia a stage of “exhaustive review” of all the “ways of cooperation” that both nations will be developing “in the coming months” is entered.
Gil maintained that the Chavista Government has been emphatic about being able to build a “productive agenda, an agenda of peace, of respect” and thus be able, he added, “to put relations between the United States of America and Venezuela on a path of happiness for both peoples.”
US plans
On January 9, the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said that Washington established after the capture of the Venezuelan president and his wife, the lawyer, on January 3 in the midst of an attack by US military troops on Caracas and three other nearby regions.
At that time he explained that the first phase would be the stabilization of Venezuela under the Rodríguez government, a second phase of recovery and “the final phase, which consists of having a normal economy again, where money benefits the people” and not, he maintained, the adversaries of the United States.
Dogu arrived in Caracas on Saturday to reopen the United States diplomatic mission, closed for seven years after the breakdown of relations between both nations after the first Trump Government recognized former opposition representative Juan Guaidó as interim president in January 2019.
Since then, Washington has managed matters related to the oil country from its US External Office for Venezuela, located until now in its embassy in Bogotá.
The US diplomatic mission in Venezuela resumes almost a month after the capture of Maduro and Flores.
Dogu will serve as chargé d’affaires of the Venezuelan Affairs Unit and will work with people from the public and private sectors, as well as civil society, to promote the three-phase plan proposed by Rubio.
A transition “schedule”
The Venezuelan opposition member assured this Monday that she is willing to meet with Rodríguez to talk about “a schedule” of democratic transition, a process that she once again described as “irreversible.”
“If it is necessary to exchange in a meeting for the purposes of defining a transition schedule, then it will be done. But I have said it, any process is based on the recognition of July 28, 2024 and for a transition,” said Machado in a virtual meeting with Colombian media such as the newspaper The Time and the station.
The former deputy thus referred to the presidential elections of July 28, 2024 in which the majority opposition claims the victory of its candidate, despite the fact that the electoral body proclaimed the victory of Maduro.
In the opinion of the opposition leader, the Venezuelan ruling party was convinced that the members of the Government “were untouchable and that is why they are not prepared to accept that this (the transition) is irreversible.”
“These guys are being forced to carry out processes against their very essence. All that sustains the Maduro regime is repression,” Machado added.
Protesters hold flags at a vigil in Caracas, Venezuela, for the release of Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores, on February 2, 2026.
Vigil for the “president”
In addition, dozens of Chavistas gathered this Monday on an avenue in western Caracas to carry out a vigil in which they demand the return of the Venezuelan president, Maduro, and his wife, after a month arrested in New York. “We will be on the street if possible all night until our president Nicolás Maduro Moros is released,” Berenice Zapata, general secretary of the Venezuelan Popular Unity party (UPV), told EFE from Urdaneta Avenue, near the Miraflores presidential palace.
“We love you president, you can’t even imagine how much, how much we miss you, but here we are with our president Delcy”
For her part, Rosa Terán, a member of the Cacique Urquía Women’s Movement, expressed to the same agency the affection she has for Maduro and Flores, as well as her support for the president in charge of Venezuela, Rodríguez. “We love you president, you can’t even imagine how much, how much we miss you, but here we are with our president Delcy Rodríguez,” he said.
Terán pointed out that whenever they are summoned they will be on the streets of Caracas to demand the release of the president and the first lady, who are detained in New York, accused of crimes linked to narcoterrorism.
