Caracas, Venezuela — The American flag was raised Saturday over the U.S. Embassy in Venezuela for the first time since 2019, the U.S. Embassy team said, drawing immediate attention outside the compound.
The embassy team said the flag was raised “exactly seven years after it was taken down,” in a statement published through the embassy’s social media channels.
Even with the flag now flying, the embassy building was still undergoing renovations, and it remained unclear when it would fully reopen, according to the report.
The move highlighted a recent shift in relations between the two countries since January, when Nicolás Maduro was captured by American troops, the Associated Press reported. The report said U.S. President Donald Trump had made several statements supporting Maduro’s successor, acting President Delcy Rodríguez, who has tried to keep negotiations open with the American government.
At the scene, the flag raising drew reactions from local residents. Luz Verónica López, a Caracas resident, said it was “a good thing, really, what a joy,” and argued that “Other countries must come back too because that’s what we need; progress, to move forward with good relations with the rest of the world, as it should be.”
Another witness, Alessandro Di Benedetto, described a generally upbeat atmosphere and said he found “several people here surprised and happy because today they raised the U.S. flag at the embassy,” adding, “This is positive; this is another step.”
Despite those reactions, the report said large chunks of Venezuelan society and the political establishment remained critics of Trump and his approach to the country.
Those critics cited Trump’s decision to forcefully remove Maduro from office and jail him in New York with his wife, as well as growing U.S. influence in Venezuela’s oil industry.