A senior Trump administration official has traveled to Venezuela to urge Nicolas Maduro’s government to take back deported migrants who’ve committed crimes in the U.S. and release a handful of Americans imprisoned, a U.S. official said Friday.
The visit by Richard Grenell, who U.S. President Donald Trump appointed as an envoy for special missions, may come as a surprise to some Venezuelans who hoped that Trump would continue the “maximum pressure” campaign he pursued against the authoritarian Venezuelan leader during his first term.
Mauricio Claver-Carone, Trump’s special envoy to Latin America, confirmed Grenell’s visit to Caracas in a conference call with journalists on Friday.
He said Grenell, who served as U.S. Ambassador to Germany and acting director of national intelligence during the first Trump administration, was in Venezuela on a “very specific mission” that in no way detracts from the Trump administration’s goal of restoring democracy in the South American nation.
“I would urge the Maduro government, the Maduro regime in Venezuela, to heed special envoy Ric Grinnell’s message,” said Claver-Carone, himself a former top national security aide to Trump during his first administration. “Ultimately there will be consequences otherwise.”
