The agreement ends an estrangement that began in 2019, when Maduro severed ties after the first Trump administration backed opposition lawmaker Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s interim president. It is the most concrete diplomatic milestone yet in the Trump administration’s effort to stabilize and reorient the oil-rich nation’s economy through what the State Department described as a phased transition toward democratic governance.
The United States and Venezuela agreed on Thursday to reestablish diplomatic relations, the State Department announced, marking a significant shift in a relationship that had been severed for seven years. The announcement came at the close of a two-day visit to Caracas by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, whose trip centered on Venezuela’s mining sector.
The accord follows a U.S. military operation that removed then-President Nicolás Maduro from power in January, an intervention that reshaped the country’s political landscape and opened the door to a new phase of U.S. engagement with the South American nation.
Talks between the two governments were “focused on helping the Venezuelan people move forward through a phased process that creates the conditions for a peaceful transition to a democratically elected government,” the State Department said in a statement Thursday.
Cabinet visits signal economic priorities
Burgum’s trip was the second high-level U.S. cabinet visit to Venezuela since Maduro’s removal. Energy Secretary Chris Wright traveled to the country in February, with discussions centered on Venezuela’s oil sector and its potential for foreign investment. Both secretaries have been working to advance the Trump administration’s broader plan to attract outside capital and restructure the crisis-stricken economy.
The Trump administration has pressed Venezuela’s current government to open the country’s oil sector to foreign companies as part of that plan.
Rodríguez’s government responds
Acting President Delcy Rodríguez — who served as Maduro’s vice president before his ouster — said on state television that the steps taken “will strengthen relations between our two countries.” Her government said in a subsequent statement that it was confident the restored ties “will contribute to strengthening understanding and opening opportunities for a positive and mutually beneficial relationship.”
“These relations ought to result in the social and economic happiness of the Venezuelan people,” Rodríguez said.
Her government also passed an amnesty law that led to the release of politicians, activists, lawyers, and others the government had held on political grounds, effectively acknowledging, according to the Associated Press, that hundreds had been imprisoned for political motivations.
Opposition leader signals return
Venezuela’s top opposition leader, María Corina Machado — who was awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize — said Sunday that she plans to return to Venezuela in the coming weeks and that elections will be held. Trump’s decision to engage with Rodríguez rather than the political opposition following Maduro’s removal surprised many Venezuelans at home and abroad, according to the Associated Press.
Background: seven years of estrangement
Relations between the two countries were cut off in 2019, during Trump’s first term, after Maduro severed ties following the administration’s recognition of opposition lawmaker Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s interim president. U.S. diplomatic staff relocated to neighboring Colombia after both countries closed their embassies.
Venezuela’s ruling political movement, known as Chavismo, had managed for years to withstand U.S. sanctions and a prolonged economic crisis before the January military operation ended Maduro’s tenure.