IN FROM THE COLD:

"The two flags of the US and Venezuela were there, they looked really pretty, the two of them, united as they should be," said President Maduro of the meeting in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, last weekend. "A new opportunity has been opened. We had a respectful, cordial and very diplomatic meeting. It's time for diplomacy, truth and peace."

Indeed, Mr Maduro also said he was ready to return to talks with the Venezuela opposition, hosted in Mexico. And a few days after the US-Caracas meeting, Venezuela released two jailed US citizens.

So far, so positive - but where will this thawing of relations lead?

"In the US, for a while now, internal forces have been saying that the strategy of oil sanctions didn't make much sense after all this time and its objective wasn't working," says Luis Vicente Leon, director of Caracas-based consulting firm Datanalisis. "When the conflict with Ukraine started, it became clear that a policy of oil sanctions put it in a predicament."

Tweet   @brothersjudd