The United States has lifted sanctions on Venezuela's interim president Delcy Rodríguez.
The move comes less than three months after U.S. forces seized the country's previous leader, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife in a military raid in Caracas and took them to New York to face drug trafficking charges.
Rodríguez, a close ally of Maduro who served as his vice-president, had been placed on the sanctions list in 2018, with the U.S. accusing her of undermining democracy.
She was sworn in as interim president by Venezuela's National Assembly, which is dominated by Maduro loyalists, days after the U.S. raid and has been described by U.S. President Donald Trump as 'a terrific person.'
Rodríguez welcomed her removal from the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List and called it 'a significant step in the right direction to normalize and strengthen relations between our countries' in a post on X.
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said the move showed the progress that had been made 'between our two countries to promote stability, support economic recovery and advance political reconciliation in Venezuela.'
Opposition activists in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, however, were critical of the move, arguing that the U.S. should exert pressure on Rodríguez to release all political prisoners still held in the country's jails. The release of political prisoners had been one of the key demands U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had made of Rodríguez.
While the National Assembly has passed an amnesty law and hundreds of detainees have been freed, prisoners' rights group Foro Penal states that almost 500 political prisoners remain behind bars.
The lifting of sanctions is the latest sign of warming relations between the Trump administration and Rodríguez's team. Earlier this week, the U.S. officially reopened its embassy in Caracas, seven years after closing it. A Venezuelan diplomatic team has also been dispatched to the U.S. to reopen its embassy in Washington.
In the months since Maduro's removal from office, several high-level U.S. delegations have traveled to Venezuela to discuss how the U.S. could expand its access to Venezuela's oil and mineral wealth.
However, critics of Rodríguez have bemoaned the fact that there has been little talk of democratic elections. Opposition leader María Corina Machado, who has been living in exile since leaving Venezuela to collect the Nobel Peace Prize she was awarded in December, met Rubio on Tuesday. Despite having been sidelined by Trump in favor of Rodríguez, Machado struck an optimistic note, praising Rubio's 'dedication to democracy, freedom and Venezuelans' well-being.'
Rubio insisted that the U.S. was making progress in Venezuela, stating that the country has moved into the second phase of recovery, and he assured viewers that ultimately, there will have to be free and fair elections in Venezuela, but he provided no indications on when this might happen.
