Venezuela's acting president tells UN of earthquake toll, pledges elections

Rodríguez and Trump meet in person for first time since operation

Venezuela’s acting president Delcy Rodríguez used her first address to the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday to cite two earthquakes that struck north-central Venezuela on June 24 — with magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5 that killed more than 6,500 people and left an untold number missing — among the year’s setbacks, and to pledge elections in her country without setting a date.

“I wish to state this very clearly before this General Assembly: Elections will be held in Venezuela,” Rodríguez said, according to The Associated Press. She said her government has begun “political dialogue with opposition sectors” aimed at a “process based on equal conditions for all.” She said the country’s institutions “will be prepared to guarantee an inclusive and transparent process” when the time comes. She did not announce a date.

“I come to talk about a Venezuela whose national life has been affected by a crisis of political coexistence that disrupted the life of the nation and our interaction with the world,” Rodríguez said. “Interests alien to the common good of Venezuelans were imposed.”

Hours before her speech, Rodríguez met President Donald Trump in person late Tuesday at a reception Trump hosted at a New York hotel — their first face-to-face encounter since the January U.S. military operation that captured her predecessor, Nicolás Maduro, and brought him to the United States to face drug trafficking charges.

“We discussed strengthening the bilateral relationship between our countries and advancing a cooperation agenda in strategic areas such as energy, mining, security, and other matters of mutual interest,” Rodríguez said on X after the encounter.

The meeting followed an agreement announced last month giving the United States a stake in Venezuela’s vast oil reserves. Rodríguez described the deal as a step toward economic recovery that would modernize the country’s oil industry. Since rising to power, Rodríguez has forged a close working relationship with Trump; the United States lifted personal sanctions against Rodríguez in April, one of several recent moves by Washington to recognize her as a legitimate authority after the operation that captured her predecessor.

Rodríguez’s appearance marked the first trip to the United States by a Venezuelan head of state since 2018, when Maduro himself traveled to New York for the gathering. Maduro is being held only a few miles from United Nations headquarters as he awaits trial in the United States. She also pointed to what she cast as a historical marker — “the last time that two presidents of Venezuela and the United States met was in 2009” — framing her encounter with Trump as a return to normalized relations after 17 years.

Rodríguez thanked Trump for “his willingness to resume the course of diplomatic relations and cooperation with Venezuela” and said her country was “being reborn.” She said Venezuela wanted to “breathe freely and exercise its rights as a sovereign nation without any kind of interference” and called for “cooperation in the energy sector, the promotion of security, the joint fight against transnational crime, and economic cooperation for the benefit of both peoples and our continent.”

Addressing her compatriots, Rodríguez said she could not promise an “easy path” and that “the country’s recovery will take time.” “Rebuilding the national soul will be our priority,” she said. “We will walk united as a single nation that, after the pain, chose hope.” She closed by vowing to shoulder the “historic responsibility” of leading Venezuela “from a period of uncertainty and conflict toward a stage of full democracy, recognized by its own people and by the world.”