The top commander overseeing US forces in Latin America, General Francis Donovan, and senior Pentagon official Joseph Humire made a surprise visit to Venezuela on Wednesday for security talks, US officials said.
The trip is the first by a US military delegation since US forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in an audacious raid last month and whisked him to New York to face drug-trafficking charges.
The visit was first reported by Reuters. Venezuela's government said the US military delegation met interim President Delcy Rodriguez, Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino and Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello.
The two sides agreed to work together to combat drug-trafficking, terrorism and illegal migration, it added. Both Padrino and Cabello face indictments related to drug trafficking in the United States.
The US military's visit follows a trip last week by US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright to Caracas. Together, the two trips highlight President Donald Trump's efforts to use military might and energy policy to push Venezuela to carry out sweeping reforms.
Washington has said it will manage Venezuela's oil business indefinitely and maintains a robust naval presence in the Caribbean, where the US military is blowing up drug boats and working with the coast guard to seize Venezuela-linked oil tankers.
Venezuela's government emphasised diplomacy as the preferred path for ties with Washington, which wants to see Caracas in the short term cut ties with US adversaries and open itself to US businesses.
Venezuela sits on the world’s largest crude oil reserves. "The meeting reaffirms that diplomacy should be the mechanism for resolving differences and addressing issues of bilateral and regional interests," Venezuela's Communications Minister Miguel Angel Perez said in a post on social media.
The US military's Southern Command said Donovan and Humire were joined in the talks by Laura Dogu, the new US envoy to the South American country.
"Discussions focused on the security environment, steps to ensure the implementation of President Donald Trump's three-phase plan – particularly the stabilisation of Venezuela – and the importance of shared security across the Western Hemisphere," Southern Command said in a post on social media.
Dogu in a separate post by the US embassy called it a historic day in the effort to, "advance the objective of a Venezuela aligned with the United States."
Visits to Caracas by high-ranking US officials were virtually nonexistent for many years, as the bilateral relationship with former President Hugo Chavez and then Maduro was severely strained.
For Donovan, it was his inaugural trip to Latin America as the head of Southern Command, a post he assumed on February 5. Before that, he helped lead the US military's special operations around the world as the number two at Special Operations Command.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali; Editing by Edmund Klamann and Edwina Gibbs)