Venezuela reclaims US embassy after rupture

CARACAS — Venezuela's Vice-Foreign Minister for Europe and North America Oliver Blanco announced on Saturday that the government has reclaimed its embassy in the United States.

In a post on X, Blanco wrote that he, along with the head of mission to the US Felix Plasencia, had reclaimed the Venezuelan embassy, which will be rehabilitated to serve all Venezuelans.

Venezuela severed diplomatic relations with the US in January 2019 because of the latter's continued interference in Venezuela's internal affairs. All diplomatic personnel from the US embassy in Venezuela withdrew in March 2019.

In August 2019, the US State Department opened the Venezuela Affairs Unit in Colombia's capital, Bogota, to maintain diplomatic functions.

On Jan 3, US military forces launched a large-scale operation against Venezuela, forcibly seizing then-president Nicolas Maduro and his wife before transporting them to New York.

On Jan 31, a US diplomatic mission arrived in Caracas, resuming diplomatic contacts between the two countries.

Maduro said on Saturday he and his wife, Cilia Flores, are "well, firm and calm", two days after a court hearing in New York.

In a first-person message posted on Telegram and X, Maduro and Flores said that "now more than ever", it is necessary to "continue consolidating the country's peace, national unity, reconciliation, forgiveness and reunification among all".

"No one should deviate from the path of dialogue, coexistence and respect," the couple said in the message, their first public statement since their capture.

On Jan 5, Maduro made his first court appearance in New York, where he pleaded not guilty to all US charges against him.

Xinhua