U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry shook hands with Venezuela’s socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro — whom the U.S has an active $15 million bounty on — in Egypt at the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) on Tuesday
Maduro is in town availing himself of the climate conference to seek out international legitimacy. The United States, along with most of the free world, does not recognize him as the official president of Venezuela. America and much of the West recognizes Juan Guaidó as the country’s legitimate president. Guaidó was appointed by the then opposition-led National Assembly to act as the nation’s interim president in 2019 as per Venezuela’s constitution following Maduro’s refusal to step down from power. Guaidó failed to exert any sort of power within the country and his position remains symbolic.
The socialist dictator, alongside other members of his regime, were indicted in 2020 by U.S. federal prosecutors on drug trafficking and narco-terrorism charges. Maduro is accused of leading a drug-trafficking organization of high-ranking government officials and members of the Venezuelan military known as the Cartel de los Soles (Cartel of the Suns).
The U.S. Department of State is offering a $15 million bounty for information leading to Maduro’s arrest and/or conviction.
In the videos published on social media, Maduro is seen holding a brief conversation with Kerry alongside María Quijada, Maduro’s official interpreter.
During a press briefing held on Tuesday, State Department spokesman Ned Price excused the encounter between Kerry and Maduro, describing the interaction as “unplanned” when asked for comment.
“Well, I think those of you who have seen the video will recognize that Nicolás Maduro, he interrupted what was an ongoing meeting at COP27 to engage Special Envoy Kerry,” Price told reporters, “and this was very much an unplanned interaction, just in the same way that other world leaders have been presented with unplanned interactions from Nicolás Maduro. He briefly spoke to Special Envoy Kerry during COP27.”
“This was not, as I said before, planned or substantive in any way,” Price insisted. “Maduro has unfortunately, as it pertains to COP, overseen a period of significant environmental degradation … as far as that conversation goes, it was unplanned; it was non-substantive as well.”
aduro’s encounter with John Kerry marks the first time the socialist dictator had a public encounter with a member of the Biden administration. Maduro met Biden personally in 2015 during the inauguration of socialist then-President Dilma Rousseff in Brazil. Rousseff, a Maduro ally, would go on to be impeached out of office.
Throughout 2022, the Biden Administration has sent official delegations to Venezuela to discuss potential oil deals and a prisoner swap between both countries that saw the release of two of Maduro’s nephews — convicted by a U.S. court of drug trafficking — in exchange for seven American oil workers imprisoned in Venezuela.
The Biden Administration has also heavily promoted the idea of holding “free and fair” elections against Maduro in 2024, for which it has pushed both the Maduro regime and the Venezuelan “opposition” to resume negotiations — tacitly granting legitimacy to the socialist dictator.
COP27, a climate conference run by the United Nations, has proven a diplomatic boon for Maduro. On Monday, the dictator held a brief encounter with French President Emmanuel Macron. Macron expressed to Maduro that he would “love” to talk and start “bilateral work” between both countries.
Much like the United States, France is among the 50 countries that do not recognize Maduro’s rule as legitimate following the 2018 sham presidential elections and recognizes Guaidó as the country’s legitimate president.
Maduro celebrated his “excellent” handshake with Macron through his Twitter account, stating that it was a “meeting point between the governments and countries of the world.”
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.