Diplomats from Venezuela and the United States held their highest-level meeting in years on Tuesday to try to ease tensions between the energy-hungry superpower and one of its major oil suppliers. Venezuelan Deputy Foreign Minister Mari Pili Hernandez met the top U.S. diplomat for Latin America, Thomas Shannon, less than two months after the countries each expelled a diplomat in a dispute over spying charges. Diplomats on both sides have periodically made gestures of reconciliation but ties have steadily deteriorated. Full Story