Updated at 3:07 p.m. with comment from Democratic primary candidate Lillian Salerno.

WASHINGTON — Questions are swirling around Congressman Pete Sessions after reports that the Republican secretly met with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas this week during a previously undisclosed trip to the South American country.

Sessions' office is billing the trip, first reported by The Associated Press, as a peacemaking mission. Spokeswoman Caroline Boothe said the longtime Texas congressman was invited by the Venezuelan government, as well as by some in opposing parties, to continue work to help resolve conflict in the politically turbulent nation.

In an interview with The Dallas Morning News on Friday, Sessions said he had been working for more than a year to promote "dialogue between parties that are trying to make progress."

He confirmed that he met with Maduro as well as some members of opposing political parties, but cited the delicate nature of the talks in declining to give more information about the meetings.

“Many times it has been attempted publicly and openly, and that has not worked toward resolution,” he said of previous negotiations, adding that he was not advocating for any one political party.

Though lawmakers often take foreign, taxpayer-funded trips in their official capacities, Sessions, chairman of the powerful House Rules Committee, said he paid for the trip out of his own pocket. The two-day trip ended Tuesday.

It remained unclear why Sessions, who has no obvious ties to the country, was approached as a third-party intermediary. Neither Sessions nor Boothe elaborated, but she said it's common for Sessions, as chairman of the Rules Committee, to help countries "uphold international standards."

Sanctions considered

The trip comes at an especially delicate time in U.S.-Venezuelan relations, with President Donald Trump's administration considering imposing oil sanctions on the OPEC nation. In February, Reuters reported that the Trump administration was weighing sanctions because of Maduro's re-election bid. U.S. officials consider the coming May election a sham.

Most of the hemisphere's leaders have shunned Maduro. In February, after he scheduled the election, Peru uninvited him from the Summit of the Americas next weekend in Lima. White House officials said Thursday that keeping up pressure on Venezuela would be high on Trump's agenda at the gathering and at a stop in Colombia on his way back to the United States.

Sessions represents an area that is home to oil companies, but both he and Boothe said his talks were unrelated to oil interests.

Officials from the U.S. State Department were apprised of Sessions’ meetings in advance but did not organize them or join the congressman in the meetings. It wasn't known whether Rex Tillerson, a Texan and friend of Sessions' who was dismissed from the secretary of state's post last month, was aware of the talks.

A U.S. official, quoted anonymously in the AP report, noted that, by contrast, U.S. officials were invited to meetings with Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, who traveled to Caracas on Wednesday to meet with Maduro and government officials to push for the release of an American prisoner. Joshua Holt, of Utah, has been jailed for nearly two years on weapons charges.

Questions about trip

It's not uncommon for members of Congress to meet with foreign leaders, though such trips are typically government-funded. Former congressman and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who's also served as ambassador to the United Nations, has long engaged in talks with North Korea, for instance, and lawmakers routinely travel on fact-finding missions, experts said.

“Members of Congress travel abroad all the time as they exercise their legitimate foreign policy oversight functions,” said Cynthia Arnson, director of the Latin American Program at the Wilson Center. “That said, the Rules Committee has no jurisdiction over Venezuelan issues.”

Charles Shapiro, president of the World Affairs Council of Atlanta and a U.S. ambassador to Venezuela under President George W. Bush, added that members of the legislative branch aren't obligated to inform the executive branch of their private meetings, though Sessions voluntarily did so.

Still, Shapiro said he had a “whole bunch of questions” about how the Texan became involved in the talks, the motivation of those who asked him to intervene, and whether anyone he met with believed he was speaking on behalf of the U.S. government.

“You and I may not think he represents the executive branch, but to a foreigner, he represents the United States of America," Shapiro said. "There’s always that confusion.”

Both Arnson and Shapiro painted a picture of economic despair in Venezuela, with hyperinflation, food shortages and a health care system on the brink of collapse. The country has several competing political factions and a coming election that few believe meets democratic standards, he said.

“I don’t know what this gentleman’s motivations are. It could be compassion that the country is in a terrible state of affairs,” Shapiro said of Sessions, later adding: “I don’t want to say his motivations are bad, but that doesn’t mean they’re not naive.”

Venezuela ranked fourth among suppliers of crude oil and products to the U.S. in 2017, though its crude oil sales were the lowest since 1991, according to Reuters. The AP reports that many Texas oil companies have since ended or curbed their investments in the country as oil production has collapsed and the financially strained Venezuelan government has fallen behind on payments.

Sessions' election

Sessions, first elected to Congress in 1996, could face a tougher-than-average contest in November after his district went for Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 contest. He'll face either Colin Allred or Lillian Salerno, who will compete in a May 22 Democratic primary runoff.

In a prepared statement, Allred slammed the trip to Venezuela this week as "further proof" that Sessions is "out of touch" with his district.

"While our communities suffer from gun violence, lack of access to health care, and an education system that is not up to par, Pete is off jet-setting to Venezuela without a clear explanation for his involvement," Allred said, adding that if Sessions "would rather represent the government of Venezuela, I'm confident the people of Texas' 32nd Congressional District will be more than happy to hand him his pink slip this November."

Salerno also criticized the move.

"Maybe Pete's planning his retirement," she said in a prepared statement. "One thing I do know: Whether he's in D.C. attacking health care and carving out special-interest giveaways or roaming around Venezuela, he's not getting anything done for the people of Texas."

Prior action

The AP reports that, in 2004, Sessions wrote a letter to Venezuelan banking regulators in support of financier Allen Stanford, a Sessions supporter who in 2012 was convicted in Texas and sentenced to 110 years in prison for running a $7 billion-plus Ponzi scheme.

Sessions also voted in favor of a bipartisan House bill last year directing the Trump administration to secure international support for a humanitarian package for Venezuela , as well as to work with regional governments on human rights protections and fair elections, according to the AP.