U.S. President Donald Trump met Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez Tuesday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, their first face-to-face encounter since U.S. forces captured then-President Nicolas Maduro in a January raid.
The informal meeting took place at a reception hosted by Trump in New York during Rodriguez’s first visit to the United States since taking office. She is scheduled to address the General Assembly Wednesday afternoon.
The encounter comes as Caracas seeks to strengthen ties with Washington and attract international investment. Rodriguez’s delegation includes the vice president for the economy, the oil minister and officials from state oil company PDVSA.
Two people close to the delegation told Reuters that the group is focused on presenting Venezuela as an attractive destination for investment.
Rodriguez described the meeting as a historic step toward strengthening relations with the United States, saying the two sides discussed cooperation in strategic areas including energy, mining and security.
“Venezuela and the United States share a historic relationship that, in this new phase, we are called upon to steer through dialogue,” Rodriguez said in a post on Telegram after the meeting.
She said her administration would continue pursuing diplomacy aimed at achieving “concrete results and collective benefits” for the Venezuelan people.
A White House official said the meeting with Rodriguez included Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, and Stephen Miller, assistant to the president and deputy chief of staff for policy.
Trump has built a working relationship with Rodriguez, who served as Maduro’s vice president.
But critics say Washington has sidelined the opposition led by Maria Corina Machado, dropping demands for free elections in favor of oil and investment deals with the interim government.
Machado, who has been in exile since late last year, made three unsuccessful attempts to return to Venezuela by sea and air in recent hours, her team and media said Tuesday.
A small group of Venezuelans protested in New York, calling for elections.
In his speech to the General Assembly, Trump called Maduro an “outlaw dictator,” said hundreds of political prisoners had been freed since his capture and held up the raid as proof the U.S. would protect its interests in the Western Hemisphere.
“To the victor belong the spoils,” he said, calling an oil deal his administration signed with Caracas last month “perhaps the biggest deal ever made.” Trump has said he wants $100 billion in investment to flow into Venezuela’s oil industry.
Rodriguez arrived in New York on Monday with the delegation, which has been holding talks on energy, mining and debt with U.S. officials, multilateral lenders and companies, sources said.
The head of the Inter-American Development Bank is working to secure approval for a $2.5 billion loan for Venezuela but has faced pushback from some members of the lender’s board.
More than 50 protesters waving Venezuelan flags and carrying signs reading “No Vote, No Oil” and “New Face, Same Regime” gathered outside the U.N. earlier Tuesday to protest Rodriguez’s presence.
Many said they wanted Trump to push for free elections in the country.
They sang the Venezuelan national anthem and chanted, “Delcy, I swear, you’re going to Brooklyn with Maduro,” referring to the federal jail in Brooklyn, just across the East River from the U.N., where her predecessor is being held pending trial on drug trafficking charges.
“On one hand, it’s outrageous to see part of the regime meeting with the authorities of this country’s current government, but there’s also no doubt that thanks to this government, today we are one step closer to freedom,” said Miguel Eduardo Martinez, a 34-year-old social media manager who moved from Caracas in 2017.
Cesar Coello, who carried a sign depicting Rodriguez in an orange jumpsuit, said, “Delcy Rodriguez wasn’t born on Jan. 3, 2026. Delcy Rodriguez has been with the Chavista dictatorship for more than 20 years. She has been complicit.”
The reference was to chavismo, the political movement founded by the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Coello said he hoped Trump and Rodriguez would discuss holding elections soon.
