Top US commander makes surprise visit to Venezuela for security talks

By Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali

WASHINGTON, Feb 18 (Reuters) – The top commander overseeing U.S. forces in Latin America, General Francis Donovan, and senior Pentagon official Joseph Humire made a surprise visit to Venezuela on Wednesday for security talks, U.S. officials said.

The trip is the first by a U.S. military delegation since U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in an audacious raid last month and whisked him to New York to face drug-trafficking charges. The visit was first reported by Reuters.

Venezuela’s government said the U.S. military delegation met interim President Delcy Rodriguez, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino and Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello. The two sides agreed to work together to combat drug-trafficking, terrorism and migration, it added.

Both Padrino and Cabello face indictments related to drug trafficking in the United States.

The U.S. military’s visit follows a trip last week by U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright to Caracas.

Together, the two trips highlight President Donald Trump’s efforts to use military might and energy policy to push Venezuela to carry out sweeping reforms.

DIPLOMACY THE PREFERRED PATH

Washington has said it will manage Venezuela’s oil business indefinitely and maintains a robust naval presence in the Caribbean, where the U.S. military is blowing up suspected drug boats and working with the Coast Guard to seize Venezuela-linked oil tankers.

Venezuela’s government emphasized diplomacy as the preferred path for ties with Washington, which wants to see Caracas in the short term cut ties with U.S. adversaries and open itself to U.S. businesses. Venezuela sits on the world’s largest crude oil reserves.

“The meeting reaffirms that diplomacy should be the mechanism for resolving differences and addressing issues of bilateral and regional interests,” Venezuela’s Communications Minister Miguel Angel Perez said in a post on X.

The U.S. military’s Southern Command said Donovan and Humire were joined in the talks by Laura Dogu, the new U.S. envoy to the South American country.

“Discussions focused on the security environment, steps to ensure the implementation of President Donald Trump’s three-phase plan – particularly the stabilization of Venezuela – and the importance of shared security across the Western Hemisphere,” Southern Command said in a post on X.

Dogu in a separate post by the U.S. embassy called it a historic day in the effort to “advance the objective of a Venezuela aligned with the United States.”

Visits to Caracas by high-ranking U.S. officials were virtually nonexistent for many years, as the bilateral relationship with former President Hugo Chavez and then Maduro was severely strained.

For Donovan, it was his inaugural trip to Latin America as the head of Southern Command, a post he assumed on February 5. Before that, he helped lead the U.S. military’s special operations around the world as the No. 2 at Special Operations Command.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali; Editing by Edmund Klamann and Edwina Gibbs)