MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Delcy Rodríguez meets CIA director in Caracas

Ratcliffe traveled to Venezuela under instructions from President Donald Trump “to convey the message that the United States expects an improvement in the working relationship”

Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodríguez met on Thursday in Caracas with CIA Director John Ratcliffe, holding talks focused on security and cooperation, US intelligence sources confirmed to EFE.

Ratcliffe traveled to Venezuela under instructions from President Donald Trump “to convey the message that the United States expects an improvement in the working relationship,” The New York Times first reported, citing a US official. According to an official source quoted by CNN, Ratcliffe discussed “potential opportunities for economic cooperation” and said Venezuela “can no longer be a safe haven for US adversaries, especially drug traffickers.”

EFE reported that the meeting aimed to “build confidence” between the two sides. Ratcliffe is the highest-ranking US official and the first member of Trump’s Cabinet to visit Venezuela since the January 3 military operation that led to the capture of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, who were taken to New York to face narcoterrorism charges.

The Caracas meeting coincided with a separate encounter in Washington between opposition leader María Corina Machado and Trump at the White House. Machado presented Trump with her Nobel Peace Prize medal, despite the US president having ruled her out as a potential leader of a political transition in Venezuela due to what he described as insufficient domestic backing.

Following Maduro’s capture, Washington backed Rodríguez as interim president. The interim government has agreed to ship millions of barrels of crude oil to the United States for sale and has moved to open Venezuela’s oil industry to foreign investment, with support from the Trump administration.