Interim Venezuela Leader To Visit US

Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodriguez, will soon visit the United States, a senior US official said on Wednesday, signalling President Donald Trump’s readiness to engage the oil-rich nation’s new leadership after the dramatic ouster of President Nicholas Maduro.

Rodriguez would become the first sitting Venezuelan president to visit the US in over 25 years, aside from leaders attending United Nations (UN) meetings in New York.

Confirming ongoing engagement, Rodriguez said she was approaching talks with Washington “without fear.”

“We are in a process of dialogue, of working with the United States, without any fear, to confront our differences and difficulties…and to address them through diplomacy,” she said.

The planned visit marks a dramatic shift in US–Venezuela relations following the seizure of former president Maduro by US Delta Force operatives, who transferred him to the US to face narcotrafficking charges.

Rodriguez, a former vice president to Maduro and long-time insider in Venezuela’s authoritarian and anti-American government, remains under US sanctions, including an asset freeze.

On Wednesday, she began reorganising the country’s military leadership, appointing 12 senior officers to regional commands.

Despite a continued US naval presence off Venezuela’s coast, Rodriguez has allowed Washington to broker Venezuelan oil sales, facilitated foreign investment and released dozens of political prisoners.

A senior White House official said the visit would take place “soon,” though no date has been fixed.

The last bilateral visit by a Venezuelan president occurred in the 1990s, before the rise of Hugo Chavez. Since then, Caracas has maintained close ties with China, Cuba, Iran and Russia, often in defiance of Washington.

The proposed trip, yet to be confirmed by Venezuelan authorities, could deepen internal tensions. Hardliners within government remain wary of US influence.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello on Wednesday denied claims he met US officials ahead of Maduro’s ouster.

“It’s a campaign. They say, ‘Diosdado met with the United States’…I haven’t met with anyone,” he said on state television.

Trump has indicated support for Rodriguez remaining in power, provided US access to Venezuela’s oil, the world’s largest proven reserves, was secured.

Earlier this month, Trump hosted exiled opposition leader and Nobel Peace laureate Maria Corina Machado at the White House, later saying he would “love” to have her “involved in some way.”

Machado’s party is widely believed to have won Venezuela’s disputed 2024 elections.

Analysts say Trump’s approach reflects caution against full-scale regime change.

“Those kinds of intervention operations and the deployment of troops for stabilisation, have always ended very badly,” said Benigno Alarcon of the Andres Bello Catholic University, Caracas.

However, democracy activists insist all political prisoners must be freed and fresh elections held before any lasting political settlement.