Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez used her first state-of-the-union message on Thursday to urge opening the state-run oil industry to more foreign investment and to pursue warmer ties with the United States, the Associated Press reported.
Delivering the 44-minute address in Caracas, Rodríguez also called for diplomats attending to tell investors abroad about what she described as changes, and urged lawmakers to approve oil-sector reforms aimed at securing foreign firms’ access to Venezuela’s vast reserves, according to the report.
She framed the approach as consistent with selling Venezuela’s energy output through “free trade relations with the world,” saying, “Venezuela, in free trade relations with the world, can sell the products of its energy industry.”
The speech came as the United States has said it plans to control future oil export revenues, including to ensure it benefits Venezuelan people, and Rodríguez described oil-sale cash flowing into two sovereign wealth funds—one, she said, to support crisis-stricken health services and another to bolster public infrastructure, much of which she tied to work built under Hugo Chávez and has since deteriorated, the AP said.
The AP report described shortages inside hospitals and said patients are asked to provide supplies needed for care, ranging from syringes to surgical screws. Rodríguez also criticized the U.S. move against Nicolás Maduro, referring to a “stain on our relations,” while also promoting the resumption of diplomacy between the historic adversaries.
In a passage aimed at signaling restraint, Rodríguez said, “Let us not be afraid of diplomacy,” and added, “I ask that politics not be transformed, that it not begin with hatred and intolerance.”
The day before the speech, Rodríguez told the media, in a four-minute briefing, that her government would continue releasing prisoners detained under Maduro’s rule; the AP said human rights groups have verified only a fraction of the releases she claimed.
The appearance of continuity and confrontation coexisted with a shift in tone. The AP reported that a portrait of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, was displayed next to Rodríguez as she spoke. It said she called on the U.S. government to “respect the dignity” of Maduro, who is being held in a Brooklyn jail after pleading not guilty to drug-trafficking charges, per the report.
Rodríguez also sought to draw a line under future engagement with Washington. The AP said she told the audience: “If one day, as acting president, I have to go to Washington, I will do so standing up, walking, not being dragged.” She later added, “I’ll go standing tall … never crawling.”
The state-of-the-union remarks coincided with a separate meeting in Washington. The AP reported that Rodríguez delivered her speech while María Corina Machado was in the United States meeting President Donald Trump. It said Trump has frozen Machado out of discussions about Venezuela’s political fate while embracing Rodríguez, praising Maduro as a “terrific person” after holding his first known phone call with Rodríguez on Wednesday.
The AP said Machado told supporters after emerging from the White House that, “We can count on President Trump,” without elaborating. It also said she presented her Nobel Peace Prize medal to Trump during their closed-door conversation, and that the meeting received no coverage in Venezuela.
On Thursday in Caracas, crowds of teachers marched through the streets carrying posters condemning the United States for “kidnapping” Maduro and chanting slogans in support of the government, the AP reported. National police wearing riot gear were visible, and the report described pro-government graffiti including the message, “To doubt is to betray.”
David Smilde, a Venezuela expert at Tulane University, told the AP he saw the strategy as economic accommodation paired with political continuity, saying, “They’ve kept the same anti-imperialist rhetoric going, but more moderated.” He added that the goal was “to give Trump everything he wants economically, but stay the course politically.”
Some Venezuelans, the AP reported, declined to discuss their views publicly because of fear of government reprisals, while others said they struggled to make sense of the country’s changing reality. Pablo Rojas, 28, a music producer, said, “It’s a complete sea of uncertainty, and the only one who now has the power to make decisions is the United States government,” and said he was watching Machado’s meeting with Trump to see whether she would be positioned to lead the country.