CIA Director John Ratcliffe traveled to Venezuela and met in Caracas with acting President Delcy Rodríguez, according to a U.S. government official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The meeting, which took place Thursday, lasted about two hours, the official said. The official said it was carried out at President Donald Trump’s urging and was intended to demonstrate the U.S. desire for a better relationship with Venezuela.
The visit came the same day Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado presented her Nobel Peace Prize medal to Trump at the White House, the article said. Machado has faced criticism that Trump has effectively sidelined her even as he met with Rodríguez’s government.
Ratcliffe’s trip was expected to be viewed as another sign of Trump’s willingness to work with Rodríguez, who had been Maduro’s second in command until a U.S. military operation captured Nicolás Maduro and he was taken to the United States to face drug trafficking charges, according to the article.
The official said the visit included a small team of American officials and that it was first reported by The New York Times. The trip’s purpose, the official said, was to lay groundwork for additional cooperation between the Trump administration and Venezuela’s new leaders.
In their discussions, the official said Ratcliffe addressed potential economic collaboration between the two countries. The official also said Ratcliffe warned that Venezuela can never again allow the presence of American adversaries, including drug traffickers.
The article said the CIA played a key role in the operation to apprehend Maduro and provided critical intelligence support. It also referenced an earlier drone strike on a dock used by cartels, as described by U.S. officials.
A day after Ratcliffe’s visit, Machado told reporters in Washington that she was “profoundly, profoundly confident that we will have an orderly transition” to democracy in her country, according to the article. The article said Machado rejected the notion that Trump had chosen to work with Rodríguez over her opposition movement, which it said is widely believed to have won the 2024 presidential election.
The article said Machado, when pressed Friday, avoided giving details on her plans to return home or on when elections might be held. It also said Rodríguez, during her first state of the union address as acting president on Thursday, advocated for opening Venezuela’s state-run oil industry to more foreign investment following the Trump administration’s pledge to oversee Venezuelan crude sales.
Trump has raised doubts about his stated commitment to backing democratic rule in Venezuela and gave no timetable for when elections might be held, the article said. The article added that Trump said it would be difficult for Machado — the longtime public face of the fight for democracy in Venezuela — to lead the country because she “doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country.”