The US flag was raised above its embassy in Venezuela on Saturday for the first time in seven years, following the US capture of authoritarian leader Nicolas Maduro and the restoration of diplomatic relations.
“A new era has begun. We’re staying with Venezuela,” the US Charge d’Affaires Laura Dogu, the embassy’s most senior diplomat, wrote in a post on X with a photo of the Stars and Stripes being raised outside the embassy.
Dogu wrote that she and her team raised the flag “exactly seven years after it was removed” on March 14, 2019, two months after Caracas severed ties over Washington’s refusal to recognise Maduro’s flawed re-election in 2018.
Earlier this month, the United States and Venezuela restored diplomatic ties amid a rapid thaw in relations since the US special forces raid in January that left around 100 people dead and saw Maduro and his wife flown to New York for trial on drug trafficking charges.
US President Donald Trump’s administration says it effectively runs Venezuela and controls the country’s vast natural resources after toppling Maduro.
Trump and Venezuela’s interim leader Delcy Rodriguez, formerly Maduro’s deputy, have signed energy and mining agreements that open the door to private investment and US access to what are the world’s largest oil reserves.
On Friday, Rodriguez urged Trump to totally lift the sanctions imposed on her country.
Since January, the United States has eased a seven-year-old oil embargo on Venezuela and issued licenses allowing a handful of multinationals to operate in the country under certain conditions.
AFP
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