List of ambassadors of the United States to Venezuela

The following is a list of United States ambassadors, or other chiefs of mission, to Venezuela. The title given by the United States State Department to this position is currently Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary. The ambassadors are posted at the Embassy of the United States, Caracas, however due to the diplomatic conflict between the US and Venezuela, the person holding this position currently operates as the Venezuela Affairs Unit from the US Embassy in Bogotá, Colombia.^[1]

Ambassador of the United States to Venezuela
Seal of the United States Department of State
Flag of a United States ambassador
Incumbent John McNamara Chargé d'affaires since February 1, 2025
Nominator	The president of the United States
Inaugural holder	John G. A. Williamson as Chargé d'Affaires
Formation	June 30, 1835
Website	U.S. Embassy - Caracas

Ambassadors

Representative	Title	Presentation of credentials	Termination of mission	Appointed by
B.Irvine[2]	Chargé d'Affaires	February 14, 1819	June 29, 1835[a]	Martin Van Buren
John G. A. Williamson	Chargé d'Affaires	June 30, 1835	August 7, 1840[a]	Andrew Jackson
A. A. Hall	Chargé d'Affaires	September 22, 1841	November 29, 1844	John Tyler
Vespasian Ellis	Chargé d'Affaires	November 29, 1844	August 1, 1845
Benjamin G. Shields	Chargé d'Affaires	August 1, 1845	January 2, 1850	James K. Polk
I. Nevitt Steele	Chargé d'Affaires	January 7, 1850	October 18, 1853	Zachary Taylor
Charles Eames	Chargé d'Affaires	May 23, 1854	September 2, 1854	Franklin Pierce
	Minister Resident	September 2, 1854	September 14, 1858
Edward A. Turpin	Minister Resident	September 21, 1858	November 16, 1861	James Buchanan
Henry T. Blow	Minister Resident	June 8, 1861[b]	February 22, 1862	Abraham Lincoln
Erastus D. Culver	Minister Resident	October 7, 1862	May 17, 1866
James Wilson	Minister Resident	October 10, 1866	August 8, 1867[a]	Andrew Johnson
Thomas N. Stilwell	Minister Resident	December 16, 1867	June 7, 1868
James R. Partridge	Minister Resident	July 8, 1869	May 9, 1870	Ulysses S. Grant
William A. Pile	Minister Resident	October 9, 1871	January 9, 1874
Thomas Russell	Minister Resident	July 4, 1874	January 29, 1877[c]
Jehu Baker	Minister Resident	March 18, 1878	September 5, 1881	Rutherford B. Hayes
George W. Carter	Minister Resident	September 1881	May 16, 1882	Chester A. Arthur
Jehu Baker	Minister Resident	May 16, 1882	July 7, 1884	Rutherford B. Hayes[d]
	Minister Resident/Consul General	July 7, 1884	June 20, 1885	Chester A. Arthur
Charles L. Scott	Minister Resident/Consul General	June 24, 1885	September 18, 1888	Grover Cleveland
	Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary	September 18, 1888	January 18, 1889
William L. Scruggs	Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary	May 30, 1889	December 15, 1892	Benjamin Harrison
Frank C. Partridge	Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary	March 4, 1893	January 9, 1894	Grover Cleveland
Seneca Haselton	Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary	July 14, 1894	May 1, 1895
Allen Thomas	Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary	July 22, 1895	June 30, 1897
Francis B. Loomis	Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary	October 6, 1897	March 25, 1901[e]	William McKinley
Herbert W. Bowen	Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary	August 24, 1901	May 1, 1905
William W. Russell	Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary	August 22, 1905	March 8, 1908	Theodore Roosevelt
Jacob Sleeper	Chargé d'Affaires ad interim[f]	March 8, 1908	March 15, 1909
William W. Russell	Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary	March 15, 1909	March 24, 1910	William H. Taft
John W. Garrett	Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary	March 30, 1911	October 21, 1911
Elliott Northcott	Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary	February 14, 1912	June 3, 1913
Preston Buford McGoodwin	Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary	October 22, 1913	October 5, 1921	Woodrow Wilson
Willis C. Cook	Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary	February 1, 1922	May 7, 1929	Warren G. Harding
George T. Summerlin	Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary	February 21, 1930	January 15, 1935	Herbert Hoover
Meredith Nicholson	Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary	April 22, 1935	April 14, 1938	Franklin D. Roosevelt
Antonio C. Gonzalez	Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary	May 18, 1938	February 8, 1939
Frank P. Corrigan	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	August 14, 1939	September 5, 1947
Walter J. Donnelly	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	December 1, 1947	September 2, 1950	Harry S. Truman
Norman Armour	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	December 7, 1950	October 2, 1951
Fletcher Warren	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	November 21, 1951	March 24, 1956
Dempster McIntosh	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	April 26, 1956	December 27, 1957	Dwight D. Eisenhower
Edward J. Sparks	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	March 19, 1958	April 15, 1961
Teodoro Moscoso	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	May 23, 1961	November 21, 1961	John F. Kennedy
C. Allan Stewart	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	March 14, 1962	November 28, 1964
Maurice M. Bernbaum	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	March 4, 1965	July 9, 1969	Lyndon B. Johnson
Robert M. McClintock	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	July 7, 1970	March 14, 1975	Richard Nixon
Harry W. Shlaudeman	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	May 9, 1975	May 14, 1976	Gerald Ford
Viron P. Vaky	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	July 26, 1976	June 24, 1978
William H. Luers	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	October 9, 1978	June 28, 1982	Jimmy Carter
George W. Landau	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	August 25, 1982	June 4, 1985	Ronald Reagan
Otto J. Reich	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	June 6, 1986	July 17, 1989
Kenneth N. Skoug, Jr.	Chargé d'Affaires ad interim	July 17, 1989	September 1990	George H. W. Bush
Robert C. Felder	Chargé d'Affaires ad interim	September 1990	November 19, 1990
Michael Martin Skol	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	November 19, 1990	August 23, 1993
Jeffrey Davidow	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	October 1, 1993	May 16, 1996	Bill Clinton
John F. Keane[3]	Chargé d'Affaires ad interim	May 1996	March 1997
John Francis Maisto	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	March 21, 1997	August 7, 2000
Donna Jean Hrinak	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	August 25, 2000	January 23, 2002
Charles S. Shapiro	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	March 19, 2002	August 31, 2004	George W. Bush
William Brownfield	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	October 15, 2004[g]	July 2007
Patrick Duddy[h]	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	October 29, 2007[i]	September 6, 2008[5]
John Caulfield	Chargé d'Affaires ad interim	September 6, 2008[6]	July 1, 2009[7]
Patrick Duddy[h]	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	July 1, 2009[7]	July 16, 2010	Barack Obama
Phil Laidlaw	Chargé d'Affaires ad interim	July 16, 2010[8]	July 9, 2014
M. Lee McClenny	Chargé d'Affaires ad interim	July 9, 2014[9]	December 15, 2017[10]
Larry Leon Palmer[j]	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	Not commissioned	—	Barack Obama
Todd D. Robinson	Chargé d'Affaires ad interim	December 18, 2017	May 22, 2018[12]	Donald Trump
James B. Story	Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary[k]	July 2018	May 19, 2023[13]
Francisco Palmieri	Chief of Mission[k]	May 19, 2023	January 20, 2025	Joe Biden
Michael A. Barkin	Chargé d'Affaires ad interim[k]	January 20, 2025	February 1, 2025	Donald Trump
John McNamara	Chargé d'Affaires ad interim[k]	February 1, 2025	Incumbent

See also

• United States – Venezuela relations
• Foreign relations of Venezuela
• Ambassadors of the United States

Notes

1. Died at post
2. Never presented credentials
3. Venezuelan government refused to have further dealings with him.
4. Because Baker had not presented a letter of recall in 1881, he resumed his functions as Minister Resident on May 16, 1882 without reaccreditation under his original appointment.
5. Recall requested by Venezuelan government
6. The U.S. severed relations with Venezuela on June 20, 1908
7. Date of Brownfield’s appointment, rather than of Presentation of Credentials.
8. Ambassador Duddy was declared persona non grata and expelled by the Venezuelan government in September 2008. He was returned to his post by mutual agreement of the U.S. and Venezuelan governments in 2009. Duddy completed his tour in July 2010.^[4]
9. Date of Duddy’s swearing in, rather than of Presentation of Credentials.
10. On June 28, 2010, President Obama had nominated Ambassador Palmer for the post and the government of Venezuela had agreed, but December 20, 2010 the Venezuelan government revoked agreement for Ambassador-designate Palmer, which had been issued in May.^[11]
11. Based at the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá due to diplomatic conflict.^[1]