US names 1st ambassador in decade to Venezuela amid tensions

Washington has its first ambassor to Venezuela in a dece despite U.S. having diplomats at its Caracas embassy amid a breakdown in relations. James Story's mination as ambassor to Venezuela was confirmed Wednesday by a U.S. Senate voice vote. South Carolina native takes job that he will carry out from capital of neighboring Colombia as Venezuela endures a historic ecomic and political crisis.

Story, 50, will likely be at center of helping guide U.S. policy on Venezuela during transition of President-elect Joe Biden. Relations have h a long, rocky past that include President Donald Trump's ministration winning an indictment against Venezuelan Nicolas Muro as an alleged narcoterrorist.

Biden’s win has sparked debate among those who back Trump's hard-line approach against Muro and ors who say it is time for a new approach. critics say heavy sanctions have failed to remove Muro from power while making life harder on millions of Venezuelans.

U.S. and Venezuela haven’t exchanged ambassors since 2010, when relations first started to fray under late President Hugo Chávez. two nations totally broke diplomatic ties last year, each withdrawing its diplomats shortly after Washington backed Venezuelan opposition leer Juan Guaidó as country’s legitimate leer.

U.S. les a coalition of dozens of nations that rejected Muro following his election in 2018 to a second term in a vote widely considered fraudulent because most popular opposition leers were banned from running. U.S. has since heavily sanctioned Muro, his inner circle and state-run oil firm, attempting to isolate m. Trump ministration offered a $15 million bounty for Muro’s arrest after a U.S. court indicted him on drug charges.

Story, a career diplomat minated by Trump in May, has been serving as embassy’s charge d’affairs, diplomat who hes a mission in absence of an ambassor. His foreign service career has taken him to Mexico, Brazil, Mozambique and Afghanistan. Today, he les a skeleton crew of diplomats in a “virtual” embassy in Bogota.

Despite challenge of working from outside Venezuela, Story holds a weekly 30-minute Facebook Live chat attempting to maintain ties with millions of Venezuelans at home or those who have fled crisis-riddled nation. In a freewheeling approach, he answers questions in fluent Spanish from Venezuelans and few U.S. citizens still in country, dressing latest intrigue and turmoil bubbling in Venezuela and U.S. He occasionally breaks into English with a South Carolina accent.

He is t shy about calling out Muro and his government for what critics call his growing authoritarian rule and corrupt practices blamed for destroying nation’s once thriving oil sector that’s left nation in ruins. “Look, this is t a true democracy,” Story said in an online chat earlier this year, later railing against high-ranking Venezuelan officials whose families live lavishly in Spain and Panama while most Venezuelans are in poverty. “Yes, y’re cheating all of you.”