Richard Grenell requested a formal meeting with President Nicolas Maduro.

On Friday, Richard Grenell, the special envoy of U.S. President Donald Trump, arrived in Caracas to meet with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

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The purpose of his visit is to secure Venezuela’s acceptance of deportation flights for undocumented migrants and to obtain the release of U.S. citizens detained in local prisons, said Mauricio Claver-Carone, the official in charge of Latin America at the U.S. State Department.

Washington has faced difficulties in deporting Venezuelans for years due to the deterioration of bilateral relations, especially following the diplomatic rupture in 2019 during Trump’s first term (2017-2021), when the U.S. recognized opposition politician Juan Guaido as “transitory president.”

Since then, deportation flights have been scarce. In October 2022, under the Biden administration, these flights briefly resumed but were suspended again four months later.

Venezuelan Communications Minister Freddy Ñañez confirmed that Grenell requested a formal meeting with Maduro. This request was accepted by the Venezuelan president to establish a “zero agenda,” a move that reactivates dialogue between the two countries after years of tensions.

Grenell is a key political operator within Trump’s inner circle. His career has included strategic roles such as: U.S. Ambassador to Germany (2018-2020), where he took a hardline stance against the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline; Acting Director of National Intelligence (2020), becoming the first openly gay member of a Republican presidential cabinet; and Special Envoy for negotiations between Serbia and Kosovo (2020), where he promoted economic agreements as a prelude to diplomatic normalization.

Truth Mission’s Research and Analysis Group published an article highlighting that during his first term Trump attempted a secret rapprochement with the Venezuelan government through Grenell, who held meetings with Venezuelan officials in Mexico in 2022. These conversations took place without informing then-Secretary of State Michael Pompeo or the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, Christopher Landau.

Although the effort did not succeed, the episode demonstrated that Trump prioritized parallel diplomatic channels, bypassing certain sectors of his own administration. This precedent suggests that he could repeat the strategy: negotiating with Caracas without consulting key figures such as Marco Rubio.

teleSUR/ JF Sources: EFE – Mision Verdad

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