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The United States Senate confirmed in an acclamation vote the appointment of James Broward Story, proposed last May for office by President Donald Trump. The officer is an old acquaintance of Nicolás Maduro, because in January 2019 he expelled him from the country.
The United States has confirmed James Story as its new ambassador to Venezuela, the first in ten years, despite the two countries having broken off diplomatic relations and that Washington has no diplomatic staff at its embassy in Caracas.
In this way, the new official will be the first “extraordinary and plenipotentiary” ambassador of the United States to Venezuela since the late Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, (1999-2013) expelled the then envoy from Washington, Patrick Duddy in 2010.
Since July 2018, Story has been the embassy’s interim affairs commissioner, the highest position in the absence of an ambassador, and will carry out his new post from the US legation in Colombia.
See more: Were relations between the United States and Venezuela already broken?
The diplomatic break between the two countries is long. Since January 2019, the United States has not recognized the legitimacy of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, but rather of the opposition leader Juan Guaidó, which led to the total breakdown of relations. Due to the recognition of the opposition leader, followed by fifty countries, the Maduro government then expelled Story and US diplomats from Caracas.
The United States also expelled Maduro diplomats in 2019 and currently recognizes as envoy of Ambassador Guaidó, Carlos Vecchio, to whom he handed Venezuela’s diplomatic buildings to the United States.
Story’s confirmation as ambassador comes a few days after the US elections, in which Democratic candidate Joe Biden was the winner, although Trump continues to insist that he is the victim of a “fraud” that has not been in place until now. able to prove.
The new ambassador must play a key role in relations with Venezuela during the transition to the policy that President-elect Biden wants to give towards that country, now characterized by the imposition of sanctions.
Story, 50, was previously US consul in Rio de Janeiro and held various diplomatic posts in Afghanistan, Colombia, Mexico and Mozambique.
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