MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Delcy Rodríguez calls her meeting with Trump “historic” and thanks him for his support

Hours earlier, in his address to the General Assembly, Trump had called Maduro an “outlaw dictator” and said hundreds of political prisoners had been freed since his capture in January

Venezuela's acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, described her first meeting with US President Donald Trump as “historic”. The encounter took place on Tuesday evening in New York behind closed doors and with no press access. Her post on the social network X is the only available account of what was discussed: the White House confirmed the meeting and those present but released no agenda or outcomes.

“We held a historic meeting with the President of the United States, Donald Trump, with whom we discussed strengthening the bilateral relationship between our countries and advancing a cooperation agenda in strategic areas such as energy, mining, and security and other matters of common interest,” Rodríguez wrote, posting a photograph alongside the president and thanking his administration for its support.

It was an informal encounter on the margins of the official agenda, scheduled for 7:40 p.m. at the Lotte New York Palace hotel in Manhattan, during a reception Trump hosted for foreign leaders for the General Assembly's high-level week. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller took part. Unlike other meetings Trump held in New York this week, such as his bilateral with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, this one was closed to reporters.

It is the first meeting between a US president and a Venezuelan leader in more than eleven years, since the brief encounter between Barack Obama and Nicolás Maduro at the 2015 Summit of the Americas in Panama. Maduro remains in US custody a few kilometres from the hotel where the meeting took place, awaiting trial and with the presumption of innocence.

Hours earlier, in his address to the General Assembly, Trump had called Maduro an “outlaw dictator” and said hundreds of political prisoners had been freed since his capture in January. On the oil agreement signed with Caracas last month, which gives the United States access to more than 65 billion barrels of proven reserves, he said: “To the victor belong the spoils,” describing it as “perhaps the biggest deal ever made.” He said he expected some US$100 billion in investment to flow into Venezuela's oil industry. He also presented January's military operation as evidence that the United States would use its “unmatched military might” to protect its interests in the Western Hemisphere.

Rodríguez arrived in New York on Monday and had earlier met UN Secretary-General António Guterres and the heads of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva; the World Bank, Ajay Banga; and the Inter-American Development Bank, Ilan Goldfajn. According to the UN, her talks with Guterres covered ongoing economic reforms, debt restructuring, dialogue initiatives and cooperation on human rights, as well as “the path towards full democracy”. State channel VTV described the meetings with the financial institutions as reflecting a “progressive normalisation of relations”.

Venezuela's diplomatic reintegration is not limited to Washington: on September 19, Caracas signed the restoration of relations with Paraguay at the Miraflores palace. Rodríguez addresses the General Assembly on Thursday.