US Special Envoy Richard Grenell (left) meets Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro (right) in Miraflores Palace, Caracas, January 31, 2025. Photo: Presidential Press.
Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro stated that the meeting with US President Donald Trump’s Special Envoy Richard Grenell was the first step in the path towards rebuilding relations with the United States, after a quarter century of US government’s unsuccessfully attempts to oust Chavismo from power in Venezuela.
“From a free, sovereign and Bolivarian Venezuela, we say to President Donald Trump that we have taken a first step, and we hope it can be sustained. We want to sustain it! Let it be a new beginning of a historic relationship!” President Maduro said on Friday, January 31, during an event with Venezuelan judicial authorities.
The Venezuelan president further stated that some agreements have been reached with the US side. He did not provide further details, but said that Venezuelan National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez will soon address the nation regarding this matter.
President Maduro added that his conversation with the US official, in the presence of Jorge Rodríguez and Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, was frank, direct, open and positive.
“I am not under any kind of pressure, either national or international,” President Maduro emphasized. “I am free from pressure because I am in the hands of God. We are not anti-American, nor have we ever been anti-American. We are anti-imperialist, which is different. We want a world without imperialism, without hegemony. We want a world of equals where the small countries are worth as much as the big ones.”
The emphasis on not being subjected to any kind of pressure may be in reference to various attempts from the Venezuelan side to resume normal relations with Washington that crashed in the past, with various levels of power in the United States sabotaging those initiatives.
President Maduro remarked that the advancement of this new round of negotiations with the US will depend on the accuracy of what is agreed between Caracas and Washington and what it is made public and executed by the US.
Repatriation flights
US President Donald Trump reported on Saturday, February 1, in a social media post that Venezuela has agreed to take back Venezuelan migrants currently in the United States as well as criminals belonging to the Tren de Aragua gang.
“Venezuela has agreed to receive, back into their country, all Venezuela illegal aliens who were encamped in the US, including gang members of Tren de Aragua,” Trump wrote. “Venezuela has further agreed to supply the transportation back.”
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 1, 2025
In 2018, Venezuela launched a massive repatriation program free of charge for Venezuelans migrants abroad, called Misión Vuelta a la Patria (Returm to the Homeland Program).
The Venezuelan government has questioned US willingness to facilitate the repatriation of Venezuelan nationals, given that the US government does not allow the landing of Venezuelan aircraft in its territory since 2019, when it imposed sanctions against the Venezuelan state airline Conviasa that conducts the repatriation flights.
Trump’s announcement came after the meeting between President Maduro and Richard Grenell. Venezuela has not independently confirmed or rejected the information.
Trump’s Special Envoy Meets President Maduro in Caracas (+US Prisoners Released)
Six US nationals released
On Saturday night, on his way back to the US, Richard Grenell released a series of social media posts reporting the release of six US nationals who had been imprisoned in Venezuela on terrorism charges. In early January, Venezuelan authorities reported the capture of foreign mercenaries, two of them being high-ranked US officials, one belonging to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the other to the US Army. So far neither the US or Venezuelan authorities have revealed the names of those released.
On Saturday evening, during a televised interview, Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab stated that, after reviewing the measures, six US nationals imrisoned in Venezuela were granted release measures by the Venezuelan judiciary. He highlighted that they had received dignified treatment in Venezuela, according to Venezuelan laws, as was evident in the photos released by Grenell.
Saab added that the visit of the White House special envoy demolishes the false discourse of the Venezuelan far-right of an imminent US invasion, and that the conversations of President Maduro with Grenell demonstrates the recognition of Maduro as Venezuelan head of state and government and commander-in-chief of the Bolivarian National Armed Force (FANB), irrespective of any counter-narrative.
So far, no Venezuelan or US media has released the names of the US nationals freed by the goodwill of the Venezuelan government, thus giving some credibility to the speculations about them being high-ranked US officials.
Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff
OT/JRE/SC
