The United States embassy in Caracas reopened Monday after twenty years, but the fanfare obscures an uncomfortable truth: Washington just normalized relations with the regime it spent a decade trying to topple.

Laura Dogu, the new US Chargé d'Affaires, arrived at the embassy compound declaring "El trabajo ya comenzó" - the work has already begun. But what work, exactly? The embassy reopening comes without democratic concessions from Nicolás Maduro, without freedom for political prisoners rotting in El Helicoide, without recognition of the opposition that won the 2024 election.

The reopening follows months of quiet negotiations between the Trump administration and the Maduro regime - talks that produced oil deals and diplomatic courtesies, but nothing resembling the "maximum pressure" campaign Washington once championed. Venezuela has simultaneously appointed its own envoy to Washington, completing the restoration of full diplomatic ties.

For the Venezuelan diaspora - 7.7 million people scattered across the hemisphere, the largest displacement crisis in Latin American history - the symbolism stings. The message from Washington appears clear: geopolitical convenience trumps democratic principles.

Regional reaction has been muted. Colombia's Gustavo Petro, preparing for his own tense meeting with Trump, offered cautious support. Brazil's Lula welcomed the development as "regional stability." Only the Venezuelan opposition, led by María Corina Machado, condemned what they called "appeasement of tyranny."

The embassy closure in 2019 came amid mass protests and international outrage over Maduro's authoritarian consolidation. Its reopening, without corresponding political reforms, signals a fundamental shift in US policy - from regime change to regime management.

Twenty countries, 650 million people. And in Venezuela, the regime that survives on repression just won international legitimacy without offering its people freedom. Somos nuestra propia historia - but today, that history was written in Washington.