Reporting from Bogota, Colombia, and Washington — In a potentially significant step toward repairing their tattered relationship, the United States and Venezuela have formally agreed to resume full diplomatic relations, the State Department announced Thursday.
Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the two nations exchanged notes that in effect formalized pledges that President Obama and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made at the Summit of the Americas in April to reinstall ambassadors who were expelled last September.
U.S. Ambassador Patrick Duddy and his Venezuelan counterpart, Bernardo Alvarez, soon will resume their former posts in Caracas and Washington, respectively, Kelly said. Each country's embassy had remained open since September, and formal relations were never fully cut.
Kelly said the move would "help advance U.S. interests" by improving communication with the Venezuelan government and citizens.
The restoration of full ties came a day after the State Department said it was sending an ambassador back to Syria. The Bush administration recalled Ambassador Margaret Scobey in 2005 after the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was killed by a car bomb in Beirut.
Analysts said the resumption of full diplomatic relations with Venezuela reflects the important commercial ties between the nations, the Obama administration's desire for better Latin American relations and Chavez's need to improve his image.
The two countries expelled each other's ambassadors in a diplomatic spat. Chavez moved first, saying he was acting in solidarity with Bolivian President Evo Morales, who had expelled the U.S. ambassador there, saying the United States was plotting his downfall.
The U.S. soon followed suit, expelling Alvarez and shortly thereafter freezing the assets of three close aides of Chavez, saying they had "armed, abetted and funded" Colombia's largest leftist rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.
The charges, coupled with the State Department's "decertification" of Venezuela's efforts in the war on drugs, have stung Chavez, according to Caracas-based political analyst Ricardo Sucre.
"These kinds of allegations have far-reaching effects on Chavez's image abroad and his ability to carry out foreign policy," Sucre said. "He hopes that with this resumption of full diplomatic relations, which is really a minimal gesture on his part, he can avoid the larger problems."
