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Maduro receives Trump's envoy and proposes a "zero agenda" with the US

enero 31, 2025 , ,

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, sworn in for a third term after a controversial re-election, received Richard Grenell, special envoy of President Donald Trump, in Caracas on Friday, January 31. Maduro, according to state media, is seeking to start from a "zero agenda" with the United States, while the White House clarified that the visit does not mean that it is recognizing his government.

High-level meeting between Washington and Caracas, two governments that do not maintain diplomatic relations.

The American official Richard Grenell, envoy of President Donald Trump, was received at the Miraflores Palace, the seat of the Government, by the ruler Nicolás Maduro, whose third term is not recognized by the US, which considers the opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia as the "elected president" of the South American country.

According to the state-owned Venezuelan Television (VTV), this is a "historic moment" for "Bolivarian diplomacy." At the meeting, President Maduro will propose a "zero agenda with the purpose of fine-tuning details" and "doing what needs to be done" regarding relations, but in "consensus and not imposition."

In addition, according to VTV, the plan is to "restart dialogue again" and establish a "road map" with a view to an "open" relationship.

Also present at the meeting, with the flags of Venezuela and the United States, was the president of Parliament, Jorge Rodríguez, who represented the Chavista government in meetings with officials of the previous US president, Joe Biden.

US wants Maduro to receive "Venezuelan criminals, without conditions" 

Both countries previously confirmed that Richard Grenell, special envoy of US President Donald Trump, was scheduled to meet this Friday, January 31, in Venezuela with Nicolás Maduro, who recently assumed office for a third term after a controversial re-election.

"The United States and President Trump hope that Nicolás Maduro will welcome back all Venezuelan criminals and gang members"
The purpose of the visit, according to Mauricio Claver-Carone, the person in charge of Latin America at the State Department, is to get Caracas to accept deportation flights for undocumented migrants and to secure the release of U.S. citizens detained in prisons in the Latin American nation.


 

"This special mission is very concrete. The United States and President Trump expect Nicolás Maduro to take back all Venezuelan criminals and gang members who have been sent to the United States, and to do so without conditions. It is a non-negotiable issue," said Claver-Carone.

"The second point is that the American hostages who are being held in Venezuela must be released immediately," he added.

Trump targets Venezuelan oil halt and Aragua Train deportation

The United States and Venezuela have a tense recent history, marked by broken diplomatic relations, sanctions and accusations of criminal activity and coup plotting.

But they share interests in several pending bilateral issues, including a license allowing U.S. oil company Chevron CVX.N to operate in the Latin American country, the imprisonment of U.S. detainees in Venezuela and a broad Trump crackdown on immigration.

Trump said last week that his administration would likely stop buying oil from Venezuela and was "very seriously" considering the nation.

Trump has also said he will expel members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua from the United States, while the U.S. press reports that Washington is working on a deal with El Salvador to accept them.

Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek Saab said last week that his country had definitively destroyed the gangs there in 2023, but that his office is willing to restart legal cooperation with the United States to extradite Venezuelan members of that criminal gang.

 

 

The Grenell-Maduro meeting “is not a negotiation for nothing,” Claver-Carone said in a call ahead of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s trip to Central America and the Caribbean, which begins Saturday, Feb. 1.

“The United States and President Trump expect Nicolás Maduro to take back all of the Venezuelan criminals and gang members who have been exported to the United States, and to do so unequivocally and unconditionally, first of all, as we would expect from any other country in the world. And that is not negotiable,” Claver-Carone said.

As for the releases the United States is demanding, it is not clear exactly how many Americans or dual nationals are under arrest in Venezuela, but Maduro administration officials have publicly mentioned at least nine.

The Venezuelan government has accused most of them of “terrorism” and said some were high-level “mercenaries.”

 Questioned elections and sanctions

The administration of then-U.S. President Joe Biden reinstated sweeping oil sanctions last April after saying Maduro failed to deliver on his promises of free presidential elections last year.

Maduro's victory, according to the Caracas-controlled electoral body, is being questioned by the opposition, international observers and numerous Western countries, including the United States, where Rubio has referred to opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez as Venezuela's "legitimate president."

The Biden administration also imposed targeted sanctions on dozens of officials and increased rewards for the capture or conviction of leaders, including Maduro, leaving Trump with limited options for new sanctions.

The Maduro administration has consistently rejected sanctions by the United States and other countries, saying they are illegitimate measures that amount to an "economic war" designed to cripple Venezuela.

Trump during his first term used a policy of “maximum pressure” sanctions against Maduro and referred to the Venezuelan leader as a dictator during the 2024 U.S. campaign.

Marco Rubio, a longtime critic of Maduro, spoke with Gonzalez and fellow opposition leader Maria Corina Machado by phone last week.

Grenell had said after Trump’s inauguration that he was speaking with Venezuelan officials and planned to meet with the opposition, though it has not been made public whether he met with Gonzalez, who attended Trump’s inauguration.