CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP)-The United States has started unblocking Venezuelan funds that were frozen under sanctions, the South American country’s interim president said Tuesday in the latest sign of rapprochement between long-term foes.

Caracas has been under US sanctions, including an oil embargo, since 2019, following Nicolas Maduro’s first disputed claim to reelection the previous year.

During his first term, US President Donald Trump also froze Venezuelan funds in international accounts, which Maduro estimated in 2022 amounted to some $30 billion.

“We are unfreezing resources from Venezuela that belong to the Venezuelan people,” Delcy Rodriguez, acting as president since Maduro’s toppling in a deadly US military operation on January 3, said on state TV.

“This will allow us to invest significant resources in equipment for hospitals — equipment we are acquiring in the United States and in other countries.”

She did not specify the amount.

On Rodriguez’s watch, various agreements have been struck between Washington and the interim Venezuelan regime.

“I reaffirm what President Donald Trump has said: that we have established channels of communication marked by respect and courtesy, both with the President of the United States and with Secretary (Marco) Rubio, with whom we are establishing a work agenda,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez has sought to improve ties with Trump, who has vowed repercussions if her interim government — made up of Maduro loyalists — does not toe Washington’s line.

This includes granting access to Venezuela’s vast oil resources.

Trump has since called Rodriguez’s leadership “very strong” and said the United States is already taking a cut of Venezuela’s oil.

She insists her country is not under US tutelage.

But Rubio is to warn Wednesday that Rodriguez risks the same fate as the deposed Maduro if she fails to comply with Trump’s wishes.

Rodriguez “is well aware of the fate of Maduro,” Rubio is to tell the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, according to prepared testimony.

“It is our belief that her own self-interest aligns with advancing our key objectives,” the text read, with Rubio also warning: “We are prepared to use force to ensure maximum cooperation.”

– Elections ‘not on the table’ –

Venezuela sits on about a fifth of the world’s oil reserves and was once a major crude supplier to the US, with multiple American firms operating in the country until 2007.

Another change unfolded in Caracas last week, with the United States confirming Laura F. Dogu — a former ambassador to Nicaragua and Honduras — as the new charge d’affaires to Venezuela.

That was seen as a step toward restoration of full diplomatic ties severed in 2019.

Venezuela’s constitution mandates new elections if a president’s seat is declared vacant before half their term has expired. Maduro was sworn in in January 2025.

His son, Congressman Nicolas Maduro Guerra, insisted Tuesday there was no legal provision for fresh elections in the case of a “kidnapping,” as he refers to his father’s fate.

“There is no clock running,” he told AFP in Caracas. “Elections are not on the table.”