U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to meet Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez in New York this week, marking their first face-to-face encounter since the U.S. operation that captured former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro earlier this year.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz said the encounter will take the form of a diplomatic “pull-aside” rather than a formal bilateral meeting. Both leaders are in New York during the United Nations General Assembly.
Rodríguez, who served as Maduro’s vice-president, assumed Venezuela’s leadership following the U.S. military raid in January that captured Maduro and transferred him to the United States to face drug-trafficking charges. Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, are being held in Brooklyn after pleading not guilty. Their trial is scheduled for next June.
The Trump-Rodríguez meeting also follows an agreement announced last month that gives the United States a stake in Venezuela’s vast oil reserves. Rodríguez has presented the arrangement as part of an effort to modernize the country’s oil industry and support Venezuela’s economic recovery.
The meeting comes as Washington weighs Venezuela’s political transition and its future relationship with Caracas. Republican Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar told CBS that she views engagement with Rodríguez as part of a broader U.S. strategy aimed at stabilizing Venezuela and eventually moving the country toward democratic elections. Her characterization of Rodríguez as a “necessary evil” reflects Salazar’s own assessment of the strategy, rather than an official White House description.
