The head of the US Southern Command's arrival in Caracas this week marked a new level of interaction between the governments as the US continues to manage Venezuela's oil revenue and seize sanctioned tankers.
US General Francis Donovan visited with "interim authorities" in Venezuela on Wednesday, the US Southern Command said on social media. Department of Defense acting assistant secretary Joseph Humire accompanied Donovan.
The meetings focused on counter-narcotics cooperation and immigration, the office of interim president Delcy Rodriguez said, although it had initially indicated the officials would also discuss terrorism.
Defense minister Vladimir Padrino and interior minister Diosdado Cabello were also involved in meetings, some sources said, both with close ties to the party of late former president Hugo Chavez. The US had offered rewards for information leading to the capture of both Padrino and Cabello on drug-related charges, but the 3 January capture of Chavez's successor Nicolas Maduro has led to abrupt cooperation on several fronts.
Rodriguez's government has modified oil laws to favor US investments, but has still not released all political prisoners as promised, the UN reminded Caracas on Thursday afternoon.
In an unusual scene, Donovan and Humire landed at the presidential terminal at the Simon Bolivar international airport from which Chavez and Maduro typically traveled. US charge d'affaires Laura Dogu met them at the airport rather than Venezuelan officials. Armed, camouflaged USsoldiers greeted Donovan on the grounds of the reopened US embassy in Caracas.
The meeting follows the US seizure of the Veronica III tanker in the Indian Ocean over the weekend. The tanker had left Venezuela in mid-October, likely carrying sanctioned crude, Kpler shipping data indicates.
The US Southern Command also on 16 February destroyed three boats in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean that it accused of carrying drugs, killing 11, it said.
Qatar too
Along with continued strikes, the US still manages Venezuelan oil revenue, including via accounts in Qatar. The prime minister of Qatar, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, also visited Venezuela, arriving on Tuesday, Venezuelan government officials said.
It is his second official visit to Caracas since 2022. Qatar has acted as intermediary among the US, the Maduro regime and its political opposition in the past and is temporarily safeguarding Venezuelan oil revenue as part of a transition of power negotiated with the US.
