Ten Latin American nations have rejected the US' exclusion of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua in a Los Angeles summit, calling it discriminatory.
Biden administration authorises US oil company Chevron to open talks with Maduro's government, temporarily lifting a ban on such discussions, senior administration officials say.
After a political stalemate of three years that has seen economic and social conditions in Venezuela deteriorate, Washington wants to encourage President Nicolas Maduro to negotiate with his opponents.
Mexican President Lopez Obrador rules out attending the US-hosted summit of South and North American nations if it does not display regional fraternity and invite Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
President Nicolas Maduro’s calculation includes the potential for domestic and international political and economic gains.
Javad Owji’s visit comes after the US delegation held a hushed meeting with Venezuela amid the rising oil and gas prices sparked by Ukraine crisis.
Turkish Foreign Minister Cavusoglu met top Venezuelan officials to deepen bilateral business ties including migration and agriculture.
Last November, the ICC opened a formal investigation into alleged rights violations during a crackdown by security forces on protests sparked by the arrests of several opposition leaders in 2017.
One of the freed prisoners was Gustavo Cardenas, among six Citgo oil executives arrested in 2017, and the other was a Cuban American, identified as Jorge Alberto Fernandez, detained on unrelated charges, Reuters reports.
The weekend meeting comes as Washington looks for ways to reduce its imports of Russian oil after Moscow's attack on Ukraine.
Both sides used meeting in Caracas to present what one of the sources described as "maximalist" demands, Reuters reports, reflecting longtime tensions between US and its ideological foe Venezuela which has backed Russia's war on Ukraine.
The trip, the highest-level US visit to Venezuela in years, may be linked to Washington's interest in replacing part of the oil it currently buys from Russia with the oil it stopped buying from Caracas.
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