Watchdog questions millions spent each year on shuttered US Embassy in Venezuela

MIAMI (AP) – The U.S. government employs a sizable staff of 150 Venezuelans and spends upward of $6.7 million annually for upkeep of the shuttered American embassy and other diplomatic properties in Caracas, despite having broken relations with President Nicolás Maduro’s government in 2019, according to a new watchdog report.

The report, published on Friday by the State Department’s Office of Inspector General, criticized U.S. officials for failing to conduct a required cost-benefit analysis to determine whether taxpayers should continue to foot the bill for the security, operations, and maintenance of the 27-acre embassy compound and five residences no longer housing American diplomats.

The Trump administration has emphasized cost-cutting efforts across the government and remade U.S. foreign policy, including launching a military strike on a boat off the Venezuelan coast that has upended drug busts at sea and ramped up tensions with the adversarial South American government.

The first Trump administration broke ties with Maduro and recognized an opponent as Venezuela’s legitimate leader in a failed attempt to force the socialist leader from power. As part of the breakdown in relations, the State Department in March 2019 suspended operations at its embassy in Caracas and evacuated all diplomats, fearing a takeover of the hilltop compound.

A contingent of Venezuelans employed by the State Department was always known to have stayed behind to advance U.S. interests, and relations between the two governments – although outwardly hostile – never ceased completely. The size of that mission and an account of their behind-the-scenes work have not been made public.

The inspector general report, while focused on compliance with U.S. policies, nevertheless provides a rare glimpse into that sensitive work, much of it risky given the Maduro government’s record for jailing Americans, opponents and sometimes regular Venezuelans accused of conspiring with U.S. “imperialists.”

Relations have further soured over an American buildup of warships in the Caribbean and a strike on a boat that the Trump administration says was piloted by gang members trafficking drugs.

“It’s not a bad idea to have minimum baseline operations at the embassy,” said Geoff Ramsey, a senior analyst on Venezuela at the Atlantic Council in Washington. “If relations ever get restored, it’s important that we have a team on the ground that’s ready to move the relationship forward. But if we’re spending millions of dollars just to maintain a few empty buildings with no end in sight, I think it’s fair to raise questions about the price tag.”

The 28-page report was based on an inspection this year of the so-called Venezuela Affairs Unit, which is run out of a narrow, former training room called the “submarine” at the U.S. Embassy in neighboring Colombia.

The office was initially staffed with 10 U.S. diplomats as a stopgap way to manage relations with Maduro’s government and – it was hoped – pave the way for his quick replacement by a government aligned with the U.S.

Since then, the number of employees working at the remote mission has increased to 21, the watchdog said, adding that it could find no evidence that the State Department conducted a review to justify the staffing increases.

The unit was headed until January by career diplomat Francisco Palmieri, who also served as the top American diplomat to Colombia at a time when the U.S. lacked an ambassador to either country.

The dual role of leading one of the largest U.S. overseas embassies in Colombia, while running a highly unusual remote mission, negatively affected the Venezuela Affairs Unit, the report found. It cited the difficulty Palmieri faced reviewing all sensitive diplomatic cables and participating in meetings supporting secret talks with Maduro officials.

Much of the unit’s work appears to be supported by 150 locally employed staff in Venezuela. At least some of those employees appear to be working from the embassy compound itself, according to the report, which found instances of unauthorized renovations to two embassy buildings.

After lowering the U.S. flag at the embassy, the U.S. reached an agreement with Switzerland to serve as the “protecting power” of the diplomatic compound. The total annual budget to support the operations in Caracas, including pay for local staff, stands at $10.5 million.

The U.S. routinely keeps local staff or names a third country as a protecting power to help maintain abandoned government properties, as it did in Syria when the U.S. closed its embassy at the start of the civil war in 2012, a senior State Department official said.

The inspection, which concluded in March, praised several initiatives by the Venezuela Affairs Unit, including establishing a WhatsApp channel that promoted content reaching 144,000 individuals monthly.

However, the watchdog also issued seven recommendations for shoring up compliance with State Department policies on issues ranging from management of diplomatic residences and staffing levels to proper use of a vehicle fleet and cloud-based software by staff in Caracas.

Rules require that U.S. embassies annually identify any excess properties not being fully utilized or that no longer make economic sense to maintain. In Venezuela, the U.S. owns five properties, including the ambassador’s residence, the home of the deputy chief of mission and three apartments.

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AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.