#Venezuela

The official portrait of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, released by the State Department in January 2025. Rubio is leading the talks with Caracas.

Washington is negotiating a status of forces agreement that could keep US troops in Venezuela long term

María Corina Machado at a press conference at the Colegio de Abogados de Valencia, Venezuela, in October 2023.

María Corina Machado returns to Venezuela after ten months away and says she is willing to sit down with Delcy Rodríguez

The Federal Legislative Palace, seat of Venezuela's National Assembly, facing Plaza Bolívar in Caracas, in 2011.

Venezuela's opposition negotiator hopes for a presidential election "at least by the end of next year"

The US Department of the Treasury headquarters in Washington, in a 2015 photograph. OFAC, which issues general licences, is part of the department.

US Treasury extends Venezuela earthquake-relief licence to April 2027

María Corina Machado at a press conference at the Valencia Bar Association in Venezuela, in October 2023.

Machado says Washington shut her out of the Caracas talks, and vows to return to Venezuela

Delegations from the Venezuelan government and the opposition at the opening of the negotiating table in Caracas on August 6, 2026.

Venezuela's government and part of the opposition open a third round of talks in Caracas, focused on electoral guarantees

Maracaibo without electricity in the early hours of 31 January 2026, during one of the blackouts that keep recurring in Zulia state.

Blackouts of up to 16 hours spark protests in four Venezuelan states

Delcy Rodríguez, then Venezuela's foreign minister, at the 49th Mercosur Summit in Asunción, Paraguay, in December 2015.

Delcy Rodríguez promises elections in Venezuela at the UN, but sets no date

ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations officers make an arrest during a vehicle stop in Manassas, Virginia, in April 2022. Archive photo; not the Austin incident.

Immigration enforcement

ICE agent shoots Venezuelan delivery driver in Austin, and the government's account clashes with his lawyer's

U.S. President Donald Trump during an executive order signing in the Oval Office of the White House, September 4, 2026

Drug trafficking

US drops Venezuela from list of countries failing on drug control, keeps Colombia