GUATIRE, Venezuela — The United States and Venezuela said Friday they were exploring the possibility of restoring relations, as a Trump administration delegation visited the South American nation.
The visit marks a major step toward reestablishing diplomatic ties between the historically adversarial governments. In a brazen intervention last weekend, the U.S. military captured former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro last weekend from his compound in Caracas and flew him to New York to face federal charges of drug-trafficking.
A small team of U.S. diplomats and a security detail traveled to Venezuela to make a preliminary assessment about the potential reopening of the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, the State Department said in a statement.
Venezuela's government on Friday said it plans to send a delegation to the U.S. but it did not say when. Any delegation from the country traveling to the U.S. will likely require sanctions to be waived by the Treasury Department.
The government of acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez said it ''has decided to initiate an exploratory process of a diplomatic nature" with the U.S., "aimed at the re-establishment of diplomatic missions in both countries."
Rodríguez is engaged in a delicate balancing act, under pressure to meet the Trump administration's demands and also win the support of Venezuela's military hard-liners outraged over the U.S. seizure of Maduro.
Her statements on Friday laid bare that tension.
Relating her telephone conversations with the left-wing presidents of Brazil, Colombia and Spain, she condemned Washington's ''grave, criminal, illegal, and illegitimate aggression'' against her country.
