Bloomberg ambassador James Story visits Venezuela

James Story, a Bloomberg ambassador to Venezuela, is visiting Caracas for the first time since March in an effort to convince the government and the opposition to restart stalled political negotiations.

According to two people with knowledge of the plans, Story, who arrived on Monday, has separate meetings with representatives from the two sides this week. One person said that there was a possibility of easing US sanctions and resumed talks in Mexico that have been stalled for months.

President Nicolas Maduro said that the government's chief negotiator and National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez had welcomed an important delegation from the US government, during remarks on state television on Monday evening.

Story met with opposition leader Juan Guaido shortly after arriving to discuss the resumption of the Mexico talks, according to a person with direct knowledge of the meeting.

A State Department spokeswoman said Story was accompanied by US Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens to discuss the welfare and safety of US nationals in Venezuela. Former Citgo executives are being held in Caracas.

The visit, reported earlier in the day by the Associated Press, follows a rare trip by Biden administration officials in March that led to an easing of oil sanctions. Washington and Caracas yeas ago severed diplomatic relations and the US closed its embassy in Caracas in 2019.

As a result of agreements struck during the March visit, Venezuela was allowed to ship oil to Europe this month to offset gas sales from Spanish firm Repsol SA and Italy's Eni, helping offset a supply crunch resulting from an embargo on Russian crude. A former Maduro administration official was removed from the list of sanctioned individuals by the US Treasury last week.

The US administration has said that further easing of sanctions depends on Maduro agreeing to political concessions in the framework of negotiations in Mexico. Both parties have signaled they are willing to resume the talks, suspended in October, but no date has been set.

If you are too old for an internship, try a returnship instead.