Delcy Rodríguez, acting president of Venezuela, described her meeting with Donald Trump held this Tuesday in New York, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly High-Level Week, as "historic," and she publicly thanked the U.S. president for his support of the chavista regime's reintegration into international forums.
According to the agency EFE, the meeting took place at the Lotte New York Palace hotel and was held behind closed doors, with no press access, unlike other meetings held by Trump in New York during the same week, such as the one he had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
"We held a historic meeting with the President of the United States, Donald Trump, where we discussed strengthening the bilateral relationship," Rodríguez wrote on his official X account.
The acting president thanked Trump for his "support for the reintegration process" of Venezuela in "multilateral spaces," and noted that "cooperation in energy, mining, and security was the focus of the conversation." She also expressed gratitude for the White House's support during the emergencies caused by the earthquakes on June 24.
In addition to both leaders, the following participated: Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller.
The meeting is the first between a U.S. president and a Venezuelan leader in over eleven years, since the brief meeting held by Barack Obama and Nicolás Maduro at the Summit of the Americas in Panama in 2015. Venezuela has not participated in the General Assembly with a president since 2018.
The context of the meeting is filled with unresolved tensions. The gathering took place just a few kilometers from the Brooklyn prison where Maduro is detained, charged with drug trafficking, with a trial set for June 2027.
When the journalist Eric Martin from Bloomberg News asked Rodríguez if she would visit Maduro in prison, the acting president did not respond and continued toward her security vehicle. She also avoided questions about the Venezuelan electoral timeline.
In his speech before the General Assembly, Trump celebrated the capture of Maduro —which occurred on January 3, 2026— and presented the recent oil deal with Venezuela as “the largest oil deal in history.”
This agreement, announced on August 28, granted the American company NABEP access to 17 Venezuelan oil fields with proven reserves of 65 billion barrels, equivalent to approximately 21% of the country's total reserves.
The agreement has generated criticism in the U.S. Congress from both parties. Republican Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar warned that the issue is negotiating with someone "who was not elected by the Venezuelans", while Democratic lawmakers like James McGovern questioned the administration's dealings with a regime that she herself previously labeled as illegitimate.
The Trump administration has insisted on a three-phase process for Venezuela, but critics point out that economic agreements are progressing without verifiable democratic guarantees, which fuels the perception that Washington prioritizes oil over a genuine transition in the country.
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