With its dizzying height of over 3,000 feet, the Salto Ángel waterfall has drawn tourists for decades, though it’s notoriously tricky to access. It’s found in the southeast of Venezuela, in the Canaima National Park, in the Amazon rainforest near the border with Brazil and Guyana.
The country is in the midst of an economic and political crisis. Heavily reliant on oil for income, it suffered years of recession. In 2024, the US and several other countries refused to recognize the results of its presidential election, calling it fraudulent, BBC News reported at the time.
Since then, the US has launched a multifaceted military presence that has increased naval posture and tensions in the Caribbean and led to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro by US military forces in January.
The US Embassy ceased operations in Caracas in 2019 amid the country’s deep economic crisis. Since Maduro’s capture by the US, diplomatic relations between the two countries have eased under Venezuela’s interim government, and the US State Department announced in early March that the two countries had agreed to “re-establish diplomatic relations,” although a re-opening date for the US Embassy in the country has not yet been announced.
With relations between the countries developing rapidly in the past months, US firms have been invited to do business in the country, and direct flight routes from major US airlines are opening for the first time since 2019. Yet the State Department hasn’t updated its travel advisory for the country, which has been at level four since 2019.
In its last advisory, issued in December 2025 without edits, the State Department warned about arbitrary detentions and unpredictable enforcement of local laws. In 2023 and 2025, Venezuela released several Americans, some of whom were “wrongfully detained,” according to the US government.
The US State Department’s travel advisory emphasizes the “extreme danger to US citizens living in or traveling to Venezuela” and urges all US citizens and lawful permanent residents to leave the country immediately.
The travel advisory warns of wrongful detention and torture, arbitrary law enforcement, civil unrest, widespread violent crime, including kidnapping, and poor health services throughout the country.
Travelers who still choose to visit the country may want to hire a professional security team during their stay and prepare a will before their trip, according to the US travel advisory site.
