The visit, first reported by The New York Times, was intended to lay the groundwork for additional cooperation between the Trump administration and Venezuela’s new leadership, the official said — underscoring Trump’s willingness to engage with Rodríguez, Maduro’s former second-in-command, over the opposition movement widely believed to have won the 2024 presidential election.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe traveled to Caracas on Thursday and met for two hours with Venezuelan acting President Delcy Rodríguez, becoming the highest-ranking Trump administration official to visit the South American country since a U.S. military operation captured former leader Nicolás Maduro roughly two weeks ago, according to a U.S. government official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The meeting came at the urging of President Donald Trump and was intended to demonstrate U.S. desire for a better relationship with Venezuela, the official said. It occurred the same day Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado presented her Nobel Peace Prize medal to Trump at the White House, even as he has effectively sidelined her.
The visit, which included a small team of American officials and was first reported by The New York Times, was intended to lay the groundwork for additional cooperation between the Trump administration and Venezuela’s new leaders, the official said. Ratcliffe discussed potential economic collaboration between the two countries and warned that Venezuela can never again allow the presence of American adversaries, including drug traffickers, according to the official.
Rodríguez had been Maduro’s second in command before the U.S. military operation removed him from power. The CIA played a key role in that operation, providing critical intelligence support, U.S. officials have said. The agency also conducted an earlier drone strike on a dock used by cartels, according to U.S. officials.
A day after the Caracas meeting, Machado told reporters in Washington that she was “profoundly, profoundly confident that we will have an orderly transition” to democracy in Venezuela. She said she rejected the notion that Trump had chosen to work with Rodríguez over her opposition movement, which is widely believed to have won the 2024 presidential election.
Trump, however, has given no timetable on when elections might be held and has raised doubts about his stated commitment to backing democratic rule in Venezuela. He has said it would be difficult for Machado — the longtime face of the Venezuelan democracy movement — to lead her country because she “doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country.” Pressed Friday on her plans to return to Venezuela and when elections might be held, Machado declined to provide details.
Rodríguez, in her first state of the union message as acting president on Thursday, advocated for opening Venezuela’s crucial state-run oil industry to more foreign investment, following the Trump administration’s pledge to oversee Venezuelan crude sales.