Laura Farnsworth Dogu is just not, at first look, your typical Trump appointee.
A profession diplomat with postings below the Obama and Biden administrations, she represents a department of presidency President Trump has in the reduction of and lengthy vilified.
But her choice for Trump’s high envoy to Venezuela alerts a uncommon strategic alternative, leveraging her expertise with authoritarian regimes at a second when Washington is recalibrating its method to Caracas after the overthrow of Nicolás Maduro.
“There are usually not very many circumstances on this administration the place they’ve relied on a profession diplomat,” says Elliott Abrams, who served as Trump’s particular consultant for Venezuela in 2019. “That is really an anomaly.”
Abrams suggests the appointment of Dogu — who met with the interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, in Caracas on Monday — may replicate a need for a seasoned professional to handle day-to-day diplomacy because the administration embarks on one among its most advanced overseas coverage undertakings.
“What he actually wants is knowledgeable to supervise the embassy and do the standard diplomatic issues whereas all coverage is made in Washington,” Abrams stated, referring to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Dogu, 62, arrived in Venezuela on Saturday to reopen the U.S. Embassy. She is acknowledged in Central America for her methodical, approachable type and deep understanding of Latin America’s political and cultural dynamics. Nonetheless, her direct and outspoken method has additionally led to controversy, with enraged officers in Honduras as soon as eager to declare her persona non grata.
Her new place as chargé d’affaires augments a profession that features senior roles in hostage restoration for the FBI and as ambassador to Nicaragua and Honduras in periods characterised by social and political volatility.
Earlier than taking over her new place, she served because the overseas coverage advisor to Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Employees and the chief of the operation that focused Maduro. Her workplace didn’t reply to a request for interview.
Her expertise navigating authoritarian governments and fragmented opposition actions makes her a realistic alternative for a risky post-Maduro transition. In a Senate listening to on Jan. 28, Rubio pressured the publish’s significance for restoring a restricted U.S. mission to assemble intelligence and have interaction with Venezuelan stakeholders.
Dogu will likely be tasked with navigating Venezuela’s fractured opposition, which incorporates leaders contained in the nation, exiles overseas and figures struggling for affect in a possible transition. Abrams, the veteran diplomat, stated partaking opposition actors, similar to Maria Corina Machado, is a core diplomatic accountability, significantly in a rustic america doesn’t acknowledge as having a official authorities. On the similar time, sustaining relations with the turbulent, divided authorities will likely be her accountability as effectively.
Abrams additionally cautioned that Washington priorities will outline Dogu’s mission, and people priorities may not all the time align neatly with democratic goals.
“The query is how the administration defines the pursuits of america,” Abrams stated. “Does it embody a free and democratic Venezuela? I don’t suppose we actually know the reply but.”
A household ethos of public service
A Texas resident and the daughter of a profession Navy officer, Dogu usually traces her dedication to public service to her upbringing in a navy household. That ethos formed her diplomatic profession and has been a defining thread throughout generations, with each of her sons additionally serving within the navy.
She has acquired a number of State Division honors, speaks Spanish, Turkish and Arabic and served in Mexico, El Salvador, Egypt, Turkey and Morocco.
Diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Venezuela have been suspended since 2019. She takes over from John McNamara, who had served as chargé d’affaires since February 2025 and traveled to Venezuela in January to debate the potential reopening of the embassy.
In line with a press release, Venezuelan International Minister Yván Gil Pinto, indicated that the 2 governments will maintain discussions to determine a “roadmap on issues of bilateral curiosity” and resolve disagreements by mutual respect and diplomatic dialogue.
Dogu isn’t any stranger to Venezuelan points. Throughout a 2024 information convention, whereas serving as ambassador to Honduras, she publicly criticized the participation of sanctioned Venezuelan officers in Honduran authorities occasions.
“It’s stunning for me to see [Honduran] authorities officers sitting with members of a cartel based mostly in Venezuela,” Dogu stated on the time, referring to a gathering between the federal government of President Xiomara Castro and Venezuela’s protection minister, Vladimir Padrino López.
The USA has accused Padrino López of involvement in a conspiracy to distribute cocaine, and there’s a $15-million reward for data leading to his arrest or conviction.
Years earlier, Dogu had provided a blunt evaluation of Venezuela’s financial collapse. Talking in 2019 at Indiana College’s Latin American Research program, she described Venezuela as “a really rich nation, [with] enormous oil provides, however they’ve managed to drive their financial system into the bottom,” the Indiana Gazette reported.
Disaster and confrontations
Nominated by President Obama to function ambassador to Nicaragua in 2015, she stated at her affirmation listening to that Obama had “rightly maintained” that “no system of presidency can or must be imposed upon one nation by one other.” She added: “America doesn’t presume to know what’s greatest for everybody, simply as we might not presume to choose the result of a peaceable election.”
Dogu left her Nicaragua publish in October 2018 amid nationwide protests and a extreme authorities crackdown that resulted in at the least 355 deaths, in response to the Inter-American Fee on Human Rights. On the time, Dogu stated she realized from authorities that paramilitary teams had focused her for demise.
In 2019, she linked the unrest in Nicaragua to the Chilly Battle, citing an “unlucky detrimental synergy” amongst Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela. “We by no means left the Chilly Battle in Latin America,” she stated.
Nicaraguan opposition figures, many now exiled, keep in mind Dogu as an accessible diplomat. Former presidential candidate Juan Sebastián Chamorro referred to as her a “methodical and approachable official” who upheld State Division coverage and democratic ideas.
Lesther Alemán, then a scholar chief who continuously interacted with Dogu through the 2018 protests, described her as publicly blunt however privately empathetic. Alemán emphasised Dogu’s skill to have interaction “all sides of the coin,” making her efficient with each the “authoritarian governments and with the opposition.”
Alemán stated Dogu initially had an excellent relationship with the Nicaraguan authorities, together with a private friendship with then-first woman and present co-President Rosario Murillo. Nonetheless, that relationship soured after Dogu publicly supported opposition teams through the political disaster.
Her expertise in Honduras proved extra contentious. After Dogu made her statements relating to Venezuela, Rasel Tomé, vp of the Nationwide Congress and a senior determine within the governing Liberty and Refoundation Celebration, urged lawmakers to declare her “persona non grata.”
Tomé justified this request by accusing her of constructing “interventionist statements” directed on the authorities.
Criticism continued after Dogu’s departure from Honduras in 2025. An opinion column revealed by the Committee of Kin of the Disappeared in Honduras argued that her relationship with the nation had been marked by mistrust.
“Though Ambassador Laura Dogu makes an effort to say goodbye amicably,” the piece learn, “everyone knows that the connection between her and Honduras was not honest as a result of it was disrespectful; it was not reliable as a result of it was interventionist.”
This week, the U.S. Embassy posted on-line an upbeat video of exhibiting Dogu getting into the mission, assembly with Venezuelans and outlining plans for what she calls a “pleasant, secure, affluent and democratic” Venezuela. “Our presence marks a brand new chapter,” she says, “and I’m able to get to work.”
Mojica Loaisiga is a particular correspondent writing for The Instances below the auspices of the Worldwide Heart for Journalists.
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