2023-05-11 21:43:20
The ambassador in charge of the United States in Colombia, Francisco Palmieriwill assume in parallel the diplomatic mission for Venezuela that works in Bogotá since 2019 due to the break in relations between Caracas and Washington, the Embassy announced on Wednesday.
The mission was opened in August 2019, five months after the US government closed its embassy in Caracas and recall ambassador James Story and all his staff.
“Story will end his work as head of the US Foreign Office for Venezuela (VAU) on May 19, 2023 (…). He will be replaced by Francisco ‘Paco’ Palmieri, who will immediately assume his new duties as VAU Chief of Mission,” according to a White House statement.
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In charge of the US Embassy in Bogotá -since the departure of Ambassador Philip Goldberg in June of last year and while the Joe Biden administration chooses a successor- Palmieri will continue to “also serve as Chargé d’Affaires” of said diplomatic representation, added the document.
The United States describes as “fraudulent” the re-election of the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, in 2018 and maintains a package of economic sanctions that have sought, without success, to remove him from power.
The socialist leader broke off diplomatic relations in early 2019, after what Washington recognizes opposition leader Juan Guaidó as “interim president” of the Caribbean country along with fifty governments.
Guaidó, however, eroded to the extent that Maduro resisted the pressure and the opposition itself decided to put an end to the symbolic “interim government” that it headed in January of this year.
The leader is now in the United Statesafter leaving Venezuela at the end of April.
Caracas and Washington maintain tense relations since the coming to power in 1999 of the late socialist leader Hugo Chávez, Maduro’s predecessor, who has ruled since 2013.
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