US Lifts Sanctions on Venezuela Leader
The United States has lifted sanctions on Venezuela’s acting President, Delcy Rodriguez, marking a significant thaw in relations less than three months after a US military raid captured her predecessor, Nicolas Maduro.
Rodriguez’s name was deleted from the “Specially Designated Nationals List,” according to a post on the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control website. The move enables Rodriguez to conduct business with American companies and investors more freely.
Rodriguez welcomed the decision in a statement on X, calling it a “significant step in the right direction to normalise and strengthen relations” between the US and Venezuela. She added, “We trust that this progress will allow for the lifting of the sanctions currently in force against our country”.
Ties between Washington and Caracas have warmed since Maduro’s capture on January 3, 2026, with Rodriguez complying with President Donald Trump’s demands for Caracas to open up its energy industry to American companies.
On Monday, the US State Department formally resumed operations at its embassy in Caracas, which had been closed for seven years, calling it “a new chapter” in diplomatic engagement with Venezuela. The embassy had been shuttered since 2019 after Washington recognised opposition leader Juan Guaido as interim president.
The reopening came after the US military operation that seized Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores from Caracas on January 3, taking them to New York to face drug trafficking charges that they deny. According to Venezuelan authorities, the operation killed around 100 people.
Rodriguez served as Maduro’s deputy and was sanctioned by Washington in 2018 for being a key official in his government. In mid-March, she dismissed long-serving Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez, a staunch Maduro ally, in a major military shake-up.
However, she has been walking a fine line between demands from Washington and those from her own backers since Maduro’s toppling. Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who remains in office, is seen as one of her key backers.