Rubio outlines strategy for restarting diplomatic relations with Venezuela

Secretary of State Marco Rubio outlined the Trump administration’s plan for restarting its diplomatic presence in Venezuela as it seeks to forge a more prosperous and aligned ally in the hemisphere.

The administration has picked former U.S. Ambassador to Nicaragua Laura Dogu to lead the new diplomatic mission, which will begin in Bogota, Colombia, before moving to Caracas, Venezuela’s capital.

Dogu is the foreign policy adviser to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, and previously served as the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, as well as having other assignments in Turkey, Egypt, and El Salvador.

The State Department already has 70 local people who maintain the little-used facility in Caracas, as well as “a team