The United States and interim authorities in Venezuela have agreed to re-establish diplomatic and consular relations, the US State Department said in a statement on Thursday, adding that it was focused on creating conditions for a peaceful transition to a democratically elected government.
"This step will facilitate our joint efforts to promote stability, support economic recovery, and advance political reconciliation in Venezuela," the State Department said.
"Our engagement is focused on helping the Venezuelan people move forward through a phased process that creates the conditions for a peaceful transition to a democratically elected government."
After months of heightened tensions, the US captured Venezuela's president, Nicolas Maduro, in January, setting off a chain of changes in the country, including the swearing-in of interim President Delcy Rodriguez.
The two countries have since gradually resumed bilateral relations.
US tells Latin America: Military force is the only way to defeat cartels
White House official Stephen Miller told a gathering of Latin American military leaders on Thursday that drug cartels can only be defeated with military force.
The comments make explicit a shift in US policy under President Donald Trump, whose administration has blown up suspected drug boats, seized the president of Venezuela in January, and aided Mexico last month in its operation to capture that country's most wanted cartel boss.
"We have learned after decades of effort that there is not a criminal justice solution to the cartel problem," Miller, the White House homeland security adviser, told Latin American defense leaders gathered at the US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) headquarters.
"The reason why this is a conference with military leadership and not a conference of lawyers is that these organizations can only be defeated with military power."
Legal experts and Democrats have questioned the legality of the US strategy, disputing the Trump administration's policy that equates drug traffickers with members of terrorist organizations like al-Qaeda and Islamic State.
Miller said there was no difference, adding that drug cartels "should be treated just as brutally and just as ruthlessly as we treat those organizations."
The US policy has unnerved some traditional US military partners in Latin America, including Colombia, which did not send a delegation to the gathering. Brazil and Mexico also did not send delegations.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he wanted the conference to focus on operations that lead to closer cooperation against drug trafficking.
He drew applause for promising to make available resources to SOUTHCOM, which oversees US forces in Latin America and for years has complained about being short on resources. It will now need to compete for US troops, warships and aircraft as the U. war against Iran unfolds.
Ryan Berg, director of the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the goal was to gather like-minded, pro-Washington governments to provide more structure to new kinds of cooperation in the region.
That includes this week's announcement that US military forces are assisting Ecuador in its combat against drug trafficking.
"The very recent example of Ecuador will serve as the model for other countries attending the conference," Berg said.
Berg said the conference would also set the stage for an Americas summit hosted by Trump in Miami this weekend, where the US is expected to advance a counter-China agenda.
China's influence in Latin America
Many Latin American nations now see China, not the United States, as their top trading partner, and Trump has taken aim at Chinese ties there. That includes Panama, home to a strategic canal that Trump has threatened to take back by force, if necessary.
Trump's national security strategy, published in December, argued that the US should revive the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine, declaring the Western Hemisphere as Washington's zone of influence. Hegseth joked this could be called the 'Donroe Doctrine,' to laughter in the crowd.
Critics say the rhetoric represents modern-day imperialism and that US military actions in Venezuela and the Caribbean have added to fears in a region where Washington has a troubled history of military interventions.
Addressing a region with many religions and ethnicities, Hegseth said it remained to be seen whether Latin American nations will remain Western and Christian.
"We face an essential test whether our nations will be and remain Western nations with distinct characteristics, Christian nations under God," Hegseth said.