The United States and Venezuela have agreed to begin a high-level dialogue with the aim of restoring ambassador-level relations and ending more than a decade of steadily deteriorating ties, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said.
On his first trip to Latin America since taking office and after meeting Venezuela's foreign minister in the first cabinet-level discussion between the two nations in at least several years, Kerry said he was hopeful that a rapprochement could be achieved.
The meeting, which came at Venezuela's request, took place just hours after Venezuela released from prison an American filmmaker who had been jailed on espionage charges, removing an immediate irritant in the relationship.
Kerry thanked Foreign Minister Elias Jose Jaua for the release of Timothy Tracy, calling it a "very positive development" and said he and his counterpart had spent about 40 minutes going over in detail areas in which the two countries could cooperate.
"We agreed today ... That we would like to see our countries find a new way forward," he told reporters after the meeting which took place in Guatemala on the sidelines of the annual Organisation of American States general assembly.
The idea, he said, is to "begin to change the dialogue between our countries and hopefully quickly move the appointments of ambassadors between our nations," Kerry said. The two countries haven't had ambassadors posted in each other's capitals since 2010 near the height of the estrangement between the U.S. And late populist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who died in March.
The Obama administration has been eager to mend ties with Venezuela since the death of Chavez, who delighted in tweaking the United States and pursued policies that U.S. Officials regarded as hostile. However, until Wednesday there had been little to show for the outreach.
In fact, U.S.-Venezuelan relations had been especially tense in recent months. Maduro expelled two U.S. Military attaches in March the same day Chavez died, accusing them of trying to foment instability, and Tracy's arrest came amid domestic political turmoil over the election to replace Chavez.
In addition to being the first ministerial level meeting between the two nations since 2009, Wednesday's talks were the first significant contact between the two since the disputed April 14 election to replace Chavez. Chavez protege Nicolas Maduro claimed victory at the polls, but the opposition is still contesting the results.
