The US and Venezuela have restored full diplomatic ties for the first time since 2019. Flights are back. But the State Department still says don’t go.
The US And Venezuela Are Officially Talking Again
For the better part of a decade, US-Venezuela relations have been frosty at best if not downright confrontational. Venezuela has been a country that most Americans knew only through headlines about economic collapse, political turmoil, and millions of refugees fleeing to neighboring countries. Direct flights stopped in 2019. The embassy closed. Travel advisories hit Level 4. Venezuela was, for all practical purposes, off limits. I have wanted to visit for nearly a decade but haven’t for obvious precautions.
On January 3, 2026, the US military captured (then) Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a nighttime operation and flew him to New York to face narco-terrorism and drug trafficking charges. He’d ruled Venezuela since 2013. Almost overnight, the conversation shifted from whether anything would ever change in Venezuela to how fast it already was.
This week, even more normalization returned. On March 5, 2026 the State Department announced the formal process would begin of establishing diplomatic and consular relations between the United States and Venezuela. Embassies on both sides are reopening. Consular services are resuming. This is the first full normalization between the two countries since 2019, and it happened just two months after Maduro’s capture.
A great solo travel tip spotted this week on Live and Let's Fly.
