Israel, Venezuela Renew Consular Relations After 17 Years

The two countries also agreed to continue technical cooperation tied to emergency response and reconstruction following Venezuela’s June earthquakes.

By JNS Staff

Israel and Venezuela agreed on Tuesday to renew consular relations and establish a coordination mechanism to provide services to citizens of both countries, the two governments jointly announced.

The agreement, reached following talks between Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and his Venezuelan counterpart Félix Plasencia González, creates an official channel of coordination between Jerusalem and Caracas, which have not maintained diplomatic relations since 2009.

The two countries also agreed to continue technical cooperation tied to emergency response and reconstruction following Venezuela’s June earthquakes. An Israeli humanitarian delegation led by the Foreign Ministry and the Israel Defense Forces Home Front Command assisted Venezuelan authorities for several weeks after the disaster.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry, IDF Home Front Command and Israeli National Emergency Management Authority sent more than 50 professionals to assist local authorities, and Venezuelan leaders requested that the mission be extended.

At one point, 32 Israeli specialists were operating in La Guaira, near Caracas, helping authorities shift from immediate emergency response to long-term rehabilitation. Israeli personnel aided damage assessments, recovery planning and decision-making after hundreds of coastal buildings were destroyed.

The Israeli deployment was the Home Front Command’s longest humanitarian assistance mission to date.

The joint statement also highlighted Venezuela’s Jewish community as a bridge of “historic friendship” between the two countries.

A top rabbi in Venezuela on Sunday asked the country’s president, Delcy Rodríguez, to restore diplomatic relations with Israel, the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said.

Rabbi Isaac Cohen, chief rabbi of the Israelite Association of Venezuela (AIV), delivered a letter addressed to Rodríguez during a meeting with Plasencia at the ministry’s headquarters in Caracas, according to a ministry statement.

The meeting was to “address the needs of the Jewish community in our country,” said Plasencia, according to the ministry.

“Venezuela has historically welcomed, with open arms, a large Jewish community whose contributions have added, and continue to add, to the well-being and development of our nation,” he added.

Plasencia also reiterated the Venezuelan government’s gratitude for assistance Israel provided following two earthquakes that struck the country on June 24.

Venezuela severed diplomatic relations with Israel in January 2009 under then-President Hugo Chávez, who cited Israel’s military campaign that year against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Relations between Venezuela and Israel deteriorated under Chávez, who died in 2013, and did not improve under his successor, Nicolás Maduro. Both developed close ties with Iran, repeatedly denounced Israel and faced accusations of encouraging antisemitism.

For years under Chávez, Venezuelan Jews experienced repeated police raids on communal institutions.

The Jewish population of Venezuela declined significantly during the eras of Chávez and Maduro, who were also vociferously anti-American.

In January, U.S. President Donald Trump launched a military operation in which Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were taken from Caracas to the U.S. to face charges of conspiring to bring cocaine into the United States. They have denied the charges as they await trial. The new government, though led by figures from the Maduro regime, has taken a more pragmatic approach to its relations with the United States, including restoring diplomatic and consular relations with Washington.