Washington, January 31: A senior Trump administration official has travelled to Venezuela to urge Nicolas Maduro's government to take back deported migrants who've committed crimes in the US and release a handful of Americans imprisoned, a US official said Friday.

The visit by Richard Grenell, who US President Donald Trump appointed as an envoy for special missions, may come as a surprise to some Venezuelans who hoped that Trump would continue the “maximum pressure” campaign he pursued against the authoritarian Venezuelan leader during his first term. US President Donald Trump Orders 30,000-Person Migrant Detention Facility at Guantanamo Bay To Detain ‘High-Priority Criminal Aliens’.

Mauricio Claver-Carone, Trump's special envoy to Latin America, confirmed Grenell's visit to Caracas in a conference call with journalists on Friday. He said Grenell, who served as US Ambassador to Germany and acting director of national intelligence during the first Trump administration, was in Venezuela on a “very specific mission” that in no way detracts from the Trump administration's goal of restoring democracy in the South American nation. US Intensifies Crackdown on Immigration; Vice President JD Vance, Donald Trump’s Border Czar Tom Homan Defend Raids on Schools, Churches.

“I would urge the Maduro government, the Maduro regime in Venezuela, to heed special envoy Ric Grinnell's message,” said Claver-Carone, himself a former top national security aide to Trump during his first administration. “Ultimately there will be consequences otherwise.”

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)