The United States and venezuela's Maduro government can be described as a sworn enemy in the Americas, but the relationship between the two countries seems to have taken a major turn in recent times. On March 5, the US delegation secretly visited Venezuela, and little was known about the details.
Recently, there has been a new turning point in the relations between the two countries. According to the Associated Press, the White House announced on the evening of March 8 that the Venezuelan government had released two imprisoned Americans, one of whom was an executive of an oil company in Houston, a United States that had been detained in Venezuela for four years.
Biden said in a statement that night: "These people are fathers, they have lost precious time with their children and everyone they love, and their families are suffering every day. ”
Several other Americans remain in venezuela. Among them are two members of the U.S. Army Special Forces, the Green Beret, Luke Danman and Alan Berry, and former U.S. Marine Matthew Heath.
It is worth noting that a few hours before the White House announced the news, Maduro publicly acknowledged that the US delegation did visit Venezuela on March 5, and he also said that he looked forward to improving the relationship between the United States and Venezuela. According to US media, the Maduro administration wants to show some goodwill to the Biden administration as an opportunity to release the American hostages in exchange for the United States easing oil export sanctions on Venezuela.
In fact, there have been previous indications that maduro's government may compromise with the United States on the issue of hostages. According to US media, in addition to Juan Gonzalez, director of the Western Hemisphere of the National Security Council, and James Story, head of venezuelan affairs in Colombia, the members of the delegation on March 5 included Roger Carstens, the president's special envoy for hostage affairs. Carstens' secret trip to Venezuela last December did not immediately lead to the detentionist's release, but some senior U.S. administration officials believe he built trust between the U.S. and Venezuela and laid the groundwork for the March 8 night results.
Of the March 5 U.S. delegation's trip to Venezuela, Biden described it as "the first visit to Venezuela by a White House official in 20 years since Hugo Chávez took office in the late 1990s, and a rare opportunity to discuss policy issues with the Maduro administration." A White House official described it as a "constructive, diplomatic but very frank dialogue."
According to the Associated Press, the improvement in U.S.-Venezuela relations was largely driven by months of time for Norwegian diplomats and international oil executives to act as intermediaries. However, the Biden administration chose to contact the Maduro government during this time period, which has a lot to do with the current War between Russia and Ukraine.
According to the US media, after Russia was severely sanctioned by the United States, the international energy market suffered a huge impact, and for the Biden administration, contact with the Maduro government became urgent at this time. Because the current rise in domestic oil and gas prices has caused the peak inflation in the United States to reach its highest peak in recent years. This situation is very unfavorable to the Democratic Party's MID-term elections in the United States in November, and the outcome of the midterm elections will be related to Biden's path to governance for the next two years. So Biden urgently needs more oil resources to enter the international energy market to reduce the current high oil prices and alleviate the current domestic inflation in the United States.
Venezuela is Russia's largest ally in Latin America and has the world's largest oil reserves. If Venezuela can re-enter the U.S. energy market or even the world energy market, it could mitigate the impact of the oil embargo imposed on Russia.
However, the recent biden administration's efforts to improve and Venezuela have attracted criticism from MEMBERS of the US Congress, and even Democratic lawmakers have expressed strong opposition to Biden. Democratic Senator Bob Menandez, chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said U.S. efforts to unite the rest of the world in sanctions against Russia should not come at the expense of easing sanctions on maduro's government. So, while Biden's motivation to improve relations with Venezuela is urgent, strong domestic political resistance may make it difficult for the U.S.-Venezuela relationship to make a bigger breakthrough.