Delcy Rodríguez, the acting president of Venezuela, arrived this Monday at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey to participate in the 81st General Assembly of the UN in New York, where she is scheduled to meet with US President Donald Trump on Tuesday.
The most striking aspect of their arrival was not the journey itself, but rather who was waiting at the bottom of the steps: alongside Venezuelan officials such as the Sectorial Vice President of Economy, Calixto Ortega, and the First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Oliver Blanco, was John Barrett, chargé d'affaires of the U.S. in Venezuela, in a gesture that did not go unnoticed.
The visit carries a symbolic weight that is hard to overlook: it is the first time a Venezuelan head of state has set foot on U.S. soil since Nicolás Maduro did so in 2018. Maduro is now being held in a prison just a few kilometers from the UN headquarters, after being captured by U.S. forces on January 3, 2026.
From her account on social media, Rodríguez posted a conciliatory message: "We arrive in New York with the determination and hope of a people who believe in meeting and unity among nations."
The White House confirmed last Friday the meeting between Trump and Rodríguez for Tuesday, on the sidelines of the General Assembly, in a brief and informal format known as pull-aside, without seated delegations or a joint appearance before the press.
It will be the first face-to-face meeting between a U.S. president and a Venezuelan leader in more than eleven years, since the brief exchange between Barack Obama and Maduro at the 2015 Summit of the Americas in Panama.
The rapprochement between Washington and Caracas has accelerated since the capture of Maduro. In April 2026, the U.S. removed Rodríguez from the OFAC sanctions list, where she had appeared since September 2018 for her role in dismantling Venezuelan democratic institutions.
At the end of August, Trump announced a historic oil agreement with Venezuela that granted the company North American Blue Energy Partners rights over 17 fields with more than 65 billion barrels of proven reserves, with a 35% share for the U.S. Department of War.
But the good rapport between Trump and Rodríguez is creating growing discomfort among those who demand a real democratic transition. Opposition leader María Corina Machado was emphatic in criticizing the oil pact: «The wealth of our land does not belong to an illegitimate regime», warning that the democratic transition «has not yet occurred».
The UN warned on September 16 that the Chavista repressive apparatus remains "essentially intact", with 64 new cases of torture documented since January and between 328 and 500 political prisoners according to various organizations.
Diosdado Cabello remains in charge of the Ministry of the Interior, exercising direct command over the state security forces, without having faced any sanctions or judicial proceedings.
All of this background is joined by the case of Alex Saab, who pleaded guilty on September 15 before a federal court in Miami to conspiracy to commit money laundering, accepted to forfeit 195 million dollars, and agreed to fully cooperate with the Department of Justice, which could implicate high-ranking Venezuelan officials still in power.
Rodríguez steps into a New York where her predecessor awaits behind bars, while she negotiates with the same administration that captured him. His sentencing is scheduled for January 20, 2027.
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