Will Venezuela's "interim president" Delcy Rodríguez be in the United States soon? It certainly sounds like it's possible.
Over the weekend, a reporter on Air Force One asked Donald Trump if he was planning to meet with Delcy at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York later this month to "talk about the oil."
"I may be," Trump said, nodding his head and adding, "Well, we have the oil now. We're taking in millions of barrels of oil a month."
Q: Will you be meeting with Delcy Rodriguez to talk about the oil?
— Acyn (@Acyn) September 13, 2026
Trump: I may be… Well, we have the oil now. pic.twitter.com/GNO1WepNF2
Secretary of State Marco Rubio faced a similar question last week while traveling to South America.
"Mr. Secretary, will you meet with Delcy Rodríguez if she comes to New York for the United Nations General Assembly?" a reporter asked during a press briefing.
"Maybe, maybe. We’ve talked quite a bit. Maybe," Rubio responded. "She’ll be there in New York. I don’t know if she’s actually going, but if she does, that probably will happen. But we haven’t scheduled anything yet. But sure, we’ve talked a bunch of times."
So it's not clear whether Delcy will actually be at the UNGA. The regime has not published any sort of travel itinerary, and she's not on the UN's list, but rumors are swirling, and Rubio and Trump aren't denying them.
This week, two members of Delcy's team — Hydrocarbons Minister Paula Henao and PDVSA Executive Vice President Jovanny Martínez — are in Houston attending energy meetings at the G20 ministerial. While they're not expected to attend closed-door meetings, they are likely there for side events and industry meetings to convince investors to buy into Venezuelan oil.
But having Delcy at the UN is an entirely different situation. The UNGA is the main policymaking and representative body of the UN. It allows world leaders from all 193 member countries to come together and talk about global issues. Giving her a seat at the table, plus a photo op with Trump and/or Rubio, will be seen as legitimizing her by many people.
The problem is that Delcy's old boss, Nicolás Maduro, is in a detention center just up the street from the UN. While most of her post-January 3 actions have come under maximum pressure to do as she's told, she still calls Maduro the legitimate president of the country. There are still political prisoners detained.
Keep in mind, she was Maduro's vice president, a key member of the regime, and its prominent international operator. As opposition-aligned attorney Estrella Infante told me earlier this year, Delcy's nickname was "the Pirate of the Caribbean" because of her "expertise in moving Venezuelan oil, gold, and minerals through complex global routes that pass through Africa and end in the Middle East and Europe."
She was — and is — also as anti-U.S. as they come. Remember, her father was a Marxist activist and guerrilla fighter who played a key role in the kidnapping of William Niehous back in the 1970s. He was arrested and allegedly died at the hands of the state, but Delcy's family largely blamed the United States. She has said that she would spend her life avenging his death by getting into politics.
Many believe, including several members of our own Congress, that she is complying with Trump and Rubio's demands but dragging her feet, hoping that they'll be out of office in 2029 and that she can take over as the new Venezuelan tyrant when a Democrat replaces them. In recent interviews, she has refused to commit to any concrete talk about future elections.
If Venezuela is a focal point at the UNGA, it should be to talk about democracy and what's being done to speed up the path to free and fair elections. If Delcy is not out of her current spot by January 2029, there is a real possibility that all of this, from Maduro's capture to the oil deal, will have been a waste of time. Even Rubio seems to agree.
Earlier this month, he did an interview with Sergio Novelli, and attempted to reassure everyone that if it were up to him, the elections would be held as soon as possible.
"Everyone here understands that it has to happen," he said. "Because at the end of the day, Venezuela cannot get to where it needs to be without having a legitimate government, a government that complies with all international standards, that can receive the necessary recognition. Even investors are going to want to see that, they are going to want to know that the system that exists is the same."
He added, "Obviously, the conditions have to exist, and those conditions have to be created. For example, at this very moment, if there were elections in Venezuela tomorrow, we would be using the existing machinery. That machinery is not going to give you a system — it is not going to give you a valid election."
He followed up by saying the parties currently negotiating the path to elections will meet next month to continue, but I think that's part of the problem many people, both inside and outside of Venezuela have with this situation. Why are they meeting next month? Why aren't they working on it right now?
We'll see what happens, but hanging out with Delcy at the UNGA just doesn't seem like a great idea right now.
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