The journalist David Alandete, Washington correspondent for the ABC newspaper, resumed contacts between Delcy Rodríguez and Donald Trump’s circle in 2017 and stated that subsequent conversations addressed a potential exit of Nicolás Maduro from power.
Alandete also recalled that Citgo —the U.S. subsidiary of the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA— transferred half a million dollars to the committee that organized the events for the president's first inauguration.
"Since when has Delcy actually been in contact with the United States? Did you know that in 2017 she was at Trump Tower days before the president took office for the first time? And that through Citgo she gave 500,000 euros to the committee that organized the festivities for his first swearing-in?" wrote Alandete on X.
The donation is documented with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) of the United States. Citgo made the transfer on December 22, 2016, from an account at the Bank of Texas, and the inaugural committee officially reported it in April 2017.
That committee, the 58th Presidential Inaugural Committee, raised a total of $106.7 million, approximately double the amount collected for Barack Obama's first inauguration.
According to an Associated Press investigation, Rodríguez —then Foreign Minister of Venezuela— ordered the donation as part of a strategy to attract U.S. investment to the Venezuelan oil sector, which was experiencing a deep crisis.
In that context, Citgo also hired a former campaign director for Trump as a lobbyist, and Rodríguez sought contacts with Republican congressmen and tried to arrange a meeting with the CEO of ExxonMobil.
The visit to Trump Tower is not a new development. Nicolás Maduro confirmed it in December 2020, stating that he sent Rodríguez between January 10 and 20, 2017, to meet with representatives of the president-elect, although not directly with Trump.
On that occasion, Maduro also revealed that Venezuela received an invitation to the inauguration, although the Venezuelan government decided not to attend. What Alandete adds now is the extent of those subsequent contacts.
"After her visit to Trump Tower in January 2017, Delcy continued to leverage her contacts in Washington and New York, speaking with various people close to the new president. Months later, discussions were already addressing a possible exit for Maduro from power," wrote the journalist in a second message published that same night.
In federal case 22-CR-20552, a court in the Southern District of Florida sentenced former Republican representative of Cuban-American descent, David Rivera, to ten years in prison for offenses related to his role as an unregistered foreign agent and money laundering.
The accusation claimed that Rivera secured a contract of up to 50 million dollars with a subsidiary of PDVSA to conduct political activities in the United States. Among his contacts was then-senator Marco Rubio, with whom he held meetings in July 2017.
The revelation carries particular weight in the current moment. Rodríguez assumed office as the acting president of Venezuela on January 5, 2026, following Maduro's capture by U.S. forces.
Since then, the contacts between Rodríguez and Washington have intensified. In September 2026, she met in person with Trump in New York, marking the first such meeting between a U.S. president and a Venezuelan leader in over 11 years.
Alandete announced that he will publish in his letter for the ABC newspaper new details about who participated in the negotiations of 2017 and what was negotiated, based on court documents from the Rivera case.
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