The Secretary of State of the United States, Marco Rubio, held a meeting in Washington with the newly appointed Foreign Minister of Venezuela, Oliver Blanco. In this meeting, the top official of U.S. diplomacy once again backed the three-stage scheme designed by the White House for the Caribbean country: stabilization, economic recovery and political reconciliation, and democratic transition.
According to a statement released by the State Department, during the meeting both officials reviewed the progress of the reconciliation talks driven by the Venezuelans themselves, focusing on the institutional reforms essential to guarantee "free, fair and credible" elections. At the same time, Rubio reiterated his call for the release to continue of the political prisoners who remain deprived of liberty.
The Venezuelan minister publicly valued the meeting through social media, underscoring that the meeting was held "on behalf of the acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, and the Venezuelan people." Blanco specified that the issues discussed at the table were bilateral relations, regional challenges, and "energy cooperation and security" between both countries, reaffirming Caracas's willingness to continue building "spaces for understanding for the benefit of Venezuela".
In parallel, the head of Venezuelan diplomacy also met with the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent. According to Blanco, this dialogue focused on studying the conditions for the "full economic development of Venezuela," the country's access to multilateral financial organizations, and possible avenues of economic cooperation between the two nations.
This meeting marks the first official face-to-face encounter between the top Foreign Affairs officials of the United States and Venezuela since the reestablishment of bilateral relations, which had remained suspended until the U.S. military operation last January in which President Nicolás Maduro was captured.
The diplomatic offensive in Washington is part of the recent reconfiguration of the interim Executive headed by Delcy Rodríguez, which appointed Blanco as the new Foreign Minister in place of Félix Plasencia. The latter has gone on to head the Directorate of International Affairs and to take charge in London of the recovery of the Venezuelan gold immobilized at the Bank of England.
This bilateral approach develops, moreover, in a scenario in which Washington demands replacing the "electoral infrastructure" inherited from the previous regime, with the objective of ensuring a transition with defined deadlines and new democratic guarantees.