Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro met US Senator Bob Corker on Friday, the socialist-led government said, less than a week after Maduro was reelected to a six-year term in a vote the United States did not recognize.
The election prompted a further deterioration in relations between the two countries. The United States responded to the vote with additional sanctions, prompting Venezuela to expel the top two US diplomats posted in Caracas. The United States responded with a similar move, Reuters reported.
“It was a very good meeting, it is good news for the Venezuelan people,” Venezuelan Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez told reporters, without providing details of what the officials discussed.
Images showed Maduro and Corker, a Tennessee Republican and the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, shaking hands in the Miraflores presidential palace, though neither offered statements to the media.
US lawmakers have previously held discussions with Venezuelan officials on the release of Josh Holt, a US citizen and Mormon missionary from Utah imprisoned in the South American country since 2016 on weapons charges.
