MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

White House confirms upcoming Washington visit by Venezuela’s Delcy Rodríguez

Rodríguez has tried to pair practical coordination with a sovereignty-forward message. Photo: REUTERS/Leonardo Fernandez Viloria

Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodríguez is expected to travel to Washington “soon,” a White House official told EFE on Wednesday, without providing dates or an agenda. The planned trip comes as the administration of US President Donald Trump seeks to entrench a transition framework in Caracas following the US operation that captured and removed Nicolás Maduro in early January.

According to EFE, the White House argues Rodríguez’s government is operating under US “tutelage” and meeting Washington’s key demands—most notably access to Venezuela’s oil sector and the shipment of millions of barrels to the United States for commercialization. Trump, speaking at a recent press event, said he had shifted from opposing Venezuela to embracing the current arrangement: “I was against Venezuela, but now I love Venezuela,” he said, adding that he had been working “very well” with Rodríguez and crediting her with releasing “many political prisoners.”

In remarks delivered days after meeting opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado, Trump suggested he might involve her “in some way” in Venezuela’s future, while still leaving unclear whether she would be given a formal role in the transition architecture.

At the same time, CIA Director John Ratcliffe met Rodríguez in Caracas on the day of the Trump–Machado meeting, discussing security issues and possible economic cooperation—a sign of operational engagement even as Washington maintains broader political pressure. That pressure has included tighter control over Venezuelan crude flows: US Southern Command has described recent actions against vessels in the Caribbean as part of enforcement aimed at preventing unauthorized oil shipments under a sanctions-related “quarantine” framework.

Rodríguez has tried to pair practical coordination with a sovereignty-forward message. EFE quoted her as saying that if she were to visit Washington as Venezuela’s leader, she would do so “standing up, walking—never crawling.” Machado, meanwhile, has argued Rodríguez does not represent Venezuelans and has portrayed the interim government as executing “dirty work” in a complex phase shaped by external power.

If Rodríguez’s Washington trip proceeds in the near term, it will be read as a test of how far formal coordination can go—especially on energy and security—without the White House fully sidelining the opposition. It may also sharpen scrutiny of the transition timeline, internal political cohesion in Caracas, and the trade-offs between oil policy, sanctions enforcement, and human-rights expectations that continue to define the relationship.