Weird Diplomacy With Venezuela

Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) went to Venezuela to talk to Nicolás Maduro. This sort of thing happens from time to time, but here's the weird part:

A U.S. official said the private trip was not taxpayer funded and that Sessions had received a letter of invitation from the Venezuelan government and met with Maduro. He said State Department officials played no role in organizing the trip, which ended Tuesday and added that they were not invited to sit in on Sessions’ meetings as they were by Sen. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat, who arrived in Caracas on Wednesday for his own meetings with Maduro and government officials.

You would expect such a visit to be in coordination with the State Department, but Durbin's is and Sessions' isn't. Sessions has a good relationship with Donald Trump so maybe he's going at his behest.

I don't know anything about Sessions, who has been in the House since 2003 and has a 100% rating from the American Conservative Union.  I don't see any previous interest in Venezuela or Latin America in general. So I can't think of why him in particular. Maybe it's just a combination of loyalty to Trump and relative anonymity (for all we know, he's gone other times without notice).

Maduro sent a letter of invitation so wanted Sessions to come. Dialogue, however weird, is better than no dialogue. This seems sloppy and ad hoc, though.