A Historic Encounter in Manhattan
Donald Trump and Delcy Rodríguez met face-to-face on Tuesday night in New York, solidifying an unusual closeness that has developed between the leaders of the United States and Venezuela, once fierce enemies and now intimate partners. The closed-door meeting took place at the Lotte Palace hotel during a reception hosted by Trump for foreign leaders attending the United Nations General Assembly. The luxury hotel sits in the heart of Manhattan, less than 15 kilometers from the Brooklyn jail where former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro remains imprisoned. On the US side, participants included Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bressent, Trump's chief of staff Susie Wiles, and National Security Advisor Stephen Miller, according to a White House source.[S1]
Rodríguez described the encounter in a message on X as a historic meeting with Trump, where they discussed strengthening bilateral relations and advancing a cooperation agenda in strategic areas such as energy, mining, security, and other matters of mutual interest. She also thanked Trump and his administration for their support following the June earthquakes in Venezuela and for backing the country's reinsertion into multilateral spaces. She noted that Venezuela and the United States share a historic relationship that, in this new phase, must be channeled through dialogue.[S1]
From Adversaries to Partners
The transformation in relations is stark. In 2019, during his first term, Trump told the UN General Assembly that Cuba was plundering Venezuela's oil wealth to sustain its corrupt communist regime, and he expressed hope for the day democracy would be restored and Venezuela would be free. That same year, Rodríguez, representing Venezuela at the same forum, accused Trump's government of practicing a new kind of terror or state terrorism through economic sanctions aimed at forcing regime change. Now, after the first meeting between sitting US and Venezuelan presidents in over a decade, no reproach or democratic longing has surfaced publicly between them.[S1]
Both governments have held direct high-level talks and deepened cooperation in certain areas. The US removed Venezuela's president from its sanctions list in April, which among other things allowed her to travel to the US and meet with Trump. The following month, the AP reported that Trump's administration asked US prosecutors to avoid involving Rodríguez in an investigation into potential crimes, even though she was on the DEA's radar. Last week, Washington announced it had removed Venezuela from its list of countries accused of not cooperating sufficiently in the fight against drug trafficking. Trump has also encouraged US corporate investment in Venezuela, especially after announcing in August the largest oil deal in history with that country, giving Washington majority control of 65 billion barrels of proven Venezuelan crude reserves.[S1]
Mutual Convenience and Uncertain Legitimacy
The meeting between Trump and Rodríguez was unimaginable nine months ago, but both can benefit from the current situation, according to Imdat Oner, an analyst at Florida International University and former Turkish diplomat in Caracas. Oner told BBC Mundo that the Trump administration is securing stability for the Venezuelan government because the White House does not want to take any risks in that country, as it is the only foreign policy success it has had so far. He added that Delcy Rodríguez lacks a popular mandate, but now all her legitimacy comes from Washington, and she is very pleased with this situation because otherwise she could not stay in power. In his view, this dynamic will persist at least for the next two years, until the end of Trump's administration.[S1]
Benjamin Gedan, director of the Latin America program at the Stimson Center, a nonpartisan analysis organization in Washington, told BBC Mundo that Trump appears disinterested in a democratic transition in Venezuela and satisfied with his relationship with the current authoritarian government. An open question remains whether Trump's backing will give Rodríguez greater domestic and especially international acceptance. Meanwhile, in his UN speech on the same Tuesday, Trump called Maduro a dictator and criminal, but again suggested that US military action in Venezuela to capture him had an economic result, saying that to the victor belong the spoils. With no elections or government change on the horizon in Venezuela, this first known personal meeting between Trump and Rodríguez marks the peak of their alignment.[S1]
