FILE - Then former President Donald Trump speaks next to Richard Grenell during a presidential election campaign event at a farm in Smithton, Pa., Sept. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — A senior Trump administration official has traveled to Venezuela to urge President Nicolás Maduro’s government to take back deported migrants who’ve committed crimes in the U.S. and release a handful of imprisoned Americans, a U.S. official said Friday.

The visit by Richard Grenell, who U.S. President Donald Trump appointed as an envoy for special missions, may come as a surprise to some Venezuelans who hoped that Trump would continue the “maximum pressure” campaign he pursued against the authoritarian Venezuelan leader during his first term.

Mauricio Claver-Carone, Trump’s special envoy to Latin America, confirmed Grenell’s visit to Caracas in a conference call with journalists on Friday.

He said Grenell, who served as U.S. Ambassador to Germany and acting director of national intelligence during Trump's first term, was in Venezuela on a “very specific mission” that in no way detracts from the Trump administration’s goal of restoring democracy in the South American nation.

“I would urge the Maduro government, the Maduro regime in Venezuela, to heed special envoy Ric Grenell’s message,” said Claver-Carone, himself a former top national security aide to Trump during his first administration. “Ultimately there will be consequences otherwise.”

The visit comes less than a month after Maduro was sworn in for a third six-year term despite credible evidence that he lost last year's election by a more than 2-to-1 margin. The U.S. government, along with several other Western nations, does not recognize Maduro's claim to victory.

Electoral authorities loyal to the ruling party declared Maduro the winner of the July election hours after polls closed without providing detailed vote counts, unlike in previous elections.

Meanwhile, the country’s main opposition coalition collected tally sheets from 85% of electronic voting machines showing that its candidate, Edmundo González, won by a more than a two-to-one margin.

Spokespeople for González and his campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Grenell's visit.

The dispute over the election results sparked nationwide protests. More than 2,200 people were arrested during and after the demonstrations.

Among those detained are as many as 10 Americans who the government has linked to alleged plots to destabilize the country. One of them is a Navy SEAL. None of the Americans has been declared wrongfully detained by the State Department, a designation that would give their cases more attention.

The Trump administration has taken a slew of actions to make good on promises to crack down on illegal immigration and carry out the largest mass deportation effort in U.S. history.

Those measures include the revocation earlier this week of a Biden administration decision that would have protected roughly 600,000 people from Venezuela from deportation, putting some at risk of being removed from the country in about two months.

More than 7.7 million Venezuelans have left their home country since 2013, when its economy unraveled and Maduro first took office. Most settled in Latin America and the Caribbean, but after the pandemic, migrants increasingly set their sights on the U.S.

Venezuelans’ desire for better living conditions and their rejection of Maduro and his policies are expected to keep pushing people to emigrate.

Ahead of the presidential election last year, a nationwide poll by Venezuela-based research firm Delphos showed about a quarter of the population thinking about emigrating if Maduro was re-elected.

Grenell has reached out to Maduro before on Trump’s behalf to secure the release of imprisoned Americans only to come home empty handed.

In 2020, he traveled with Erik Prince, the founder of controversial security firm Blackwater, to Mexico City for a secret meeting with a top Maduro aide. The backchannel talks centered on Maduro’s offer to swap eight Americans then imprisoned in Venezuela for businessman Alex Saab, a close ally of the president charged in the U.S. with money laundering, The Associated Press previously reported.

No deal was struck and Grenell’s demand that Maduro step down was laughed off by the Venezuelan president’s envoy. Grenell has always denied he was negotiating a hostage swap.

Later, in December 2023, the Biden administration exchanged Saab for 10 Americans as part of a policy to re-engage Maduro ahead of presidential elections.

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Goodman reported from Miami.

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