Miami – The U.S. government employs 150 Venezuelans high-value workers and spends $6.7 million a year on $6.7 million to maintain closed U.S. embassy and other diplomatic properties CaracasDespite a broken relationship with President Nicolás Maduro’s administration, according to the new monitoring report.
The report was reported on Friday The State Council The Office of the Inspector General criticized U.S. officials for failing to conduct the required cost-benefit analysis to determine whether taxpayers should continue to pay for the security, operation and maintenance and maintenance bills of the 27-acre embassy compound, while the five residences are no longer U.S. diplomats.
The Trump administration highlighted cost-cutting efforts across the administration and re-engineered foreign policy, including launching a military strike on a ship near the coast of Venezuela, which raised drug busts at sea and exacerbated tensions with the hostile South American government.
The first Trump administration broke ties with Maduro and admitted an opponent From Venezuela Legal leaders try to force socialist leaders from power. As part of the relationship decomposition, State Council In March 2019, its embassy suspended its operations Caracas And evacuated all diplomats, worried about taking over the mountaintop compound.
Depend on State Council People are known to stay and promote American interests, and the relationship between the two governments – despite external hostility – has never completely stopped. The scale of the task and description of the work behind the scenes has not been made public.
The Inspector General Report, while focused on complying with U.S. policy, has a rare glimpse of this sensitive work, given that the Maduro administration’s records are records of Americans, opponents and Venezuelans who are sometimes accused of complicity with American “imperialism.”
Photo: Watchdog Issues Spend Millions of Dollars Every Year on Venezuela’s Closed U.S. Embassy
Relations further fueled the accumulation of U.S. Caribbean warships and strikes the Trump administration said the ship was driven by gang members who were trafficking in drugs.
“It is not a bad idea to carry out minimum baseline action at the embassy,” said senior analyst Geoff Ramsey Venezuela Atlantic Council in Washington. “If the relationship is restored, it’s important that we have a team ready to push the relationship forward. But if we spend millions just to maintain a few empty buildings and nothing, I think it’s fair to raise questions about the price tag.”
The 28-page report is based on this year’s inspection of the so-called Venezuelan affairs department, which runs out of a narrow, former training room called “submarines” at the U.S. Embassy in neighbouring Colombia.
The office was originally composed of 10 U.S. diplomats as a way to manage relations with Maduro and – hope – paved the way for a quick replacement of his government that is consistent with the United States
The supervisory authority said that since then, the number of employees working in remote tasks has increased to 21, adding that no evidence was found State Council The review was conducted to justify the increase in staffing.
The department has been driven to January by professional diplomat Francisco Palmieri, who was also Colombia’s top diplomat when the United States lacks ambassadors for any country.
The report found that leading one of the largest overseas embassies in the United States has had a dual role in Colombia while performing very unusual remote missions, negatively affecting the Venezuelan affairs department. It cites the difficulties faced by Palmieri, reviews all sensitive diplomatic cables, and attends a meeting with secret talks with Maduro officials.
Much of the work of the unit appears to be supported by 150 locally employed employees Venezuela. At least some of the employees appear to be working on the job from the Embassy Compound itself, the report found unauthorized renovations of two embassy buildings.
After lowering the American flag of the embassy, the United States reached an agreement with Switzerland to serve as a “protective force” of the diplomatic compound. Total budget for each year to support operations Caracasincluding local employees’ salaries, are $10.5 million.
The United States will usually list local employees or third countries as protective powers to help maintain abandoned government property, just like it was a senior in Syria when the civil war began in 2012. State Council Officials said.
The inspection ended in March, praising several initiatives by the Venezuelan affairs department, including the establishment of a WhatsApp channel that promotes content to 144,000 people per month.
However, Watchdog also issued seven suggestions to comply with eligible criteria State Council Policies on issues, from management of diplomatic residence and staffing levels to the correct use of fleets and cloud-based software Caracas.
The rules require the U.S. Embassy to identify any excessive property that is underutilized or no longer economically meaningful every year. exist Venezuelathe United States owns five properties, including the ambassador’s residence, deputy deputy director of missionary education and the location of three apartments.
