Delcy Rodríguez, acting president of Venezuela, refused to answer whether she will visit Nicolás Maduro in the New York jail during her stay in the city for the UN General Assembly, as reported on his social media by journalist Eric Martin, State Department correspondent for Bloomberg News.
Martin recounted that he asked the question directly to Rodríguez before she got into her truck at the exit of the Venezuelan diplomatic headquarters, and that the official chose silence over responding. The scene took place on Monday, one day after the Venezuelan delegation arrived in New York with an agenda focused on debt and energy, according to Reuters.
The episode takes on a particular dimension because Maduro is currently held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn —just a few kilometers from the UN headquarters— since his capture by U.S. forces on January 3, 2026, placing both of them in the same city for the entire week.
The silence of Rodríguez regarding Maduro stands in stark contrast to her initial stance following the arrest. In January 2026, she described the capture as “an illegal and illegitimate kidnapping”, publicly defended the innocence of Maduro and Cilia Flores, and even declared: “no one surrendered here, there was a fight.”
However, in the following months, Rodríguez's government deepened its approach to Washington: it maintained a phone call with Trump in January 2026 regarding oil, minerals, and security; met with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in March; negotiated agreements for the sale of Venezuelan gold with American companies; and was removed from the OFAC sanctions list in April 2026.
On its part, the White House confirmed a meeting between Trump and Rodríguez in New York, in an informal format on the sidelines of the UN, marking a diplomatic milestone for the Chavista regime, which has not had a presence in that forum since Maduro in 2018.
Regarding the elections in Venezuela, Rodríguez also dodged the question posed by a journalist in front of the embassy. Days earlier, on September 2, she had stated that the elections would take place “when Venezuela is ready” and was explicit: “I do not set a date.”
Trump, for his part, said that same day that Rodríguez "wants" elections, but that Venezuela "is still not ready" to organize them, using a formula that evades any schedule and leaves the issue up in the air.
The congresswoman María Elvira Salazar expressed critical views regarding Rodríguez's visit to New York on Monday, in the context of the negotiations that the Chavista regime is holding with the U.S. administration over oil and minerals.
Venezuelan gold is another issue on the table: recent reports indicate that part of the country's reserves could end up in New York as part of ongoing negotiations, illustrating to what extent Rodríguez's government has given ground to Washington while remaining silent about the man whose capture by the Delta Force opened the doors to the Palacio Miraflores.
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