President Donald Trump’s advisers remain happy with Venezuela’s interim president — even as she seems at times to be going rogue.
It’s been exactly one month since the US ousted Nicolás Maduro, and his deputy turned successor, Delcy Rodríguez, is professing cooperation with the Trump administration while delivering near-simultaneous public condemnations of Washington.
That’s raising questions about how serious Rodríguez is about working with the US — and how long her cooperation will last.
She released some political prisoners and announced a bill that could lead to amnesty for hundreds more. She signed a law overhauling Venezuela’s oil sector and vowed that the country’s first $300 m…
President Donald Trump’s advisers remain happy with Venezuela’s interim president — even as she seems at times to be going rogue.
It’s been exactly one month since the US ousted Nicolás Maduro, and his deputy turned successor, Delcy Rodríguez, is professing cooperation with the Trump administration while delivering near-simultaneous public condemnations of Washington.
That’s raising questions about how serious Rodríguez is about working with the US — and how long her cooperation will last.
She released some political prisoners and announced a bill that could lead to amnesty for hundreds more. She signed a law overhauling Venezuela’s oil sector and vowed that the country’s first $300 million received from oil sales would be used “to consolidate and stabilize” the market.
Rodríguez is also maintaining weekly communication with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in addition to sitting down this week with newly appointed US envoy Laura Dogu to discuss bilateral relations.
But her public appearances demonstrate a more pugnacious side, even as she advocates for “diplomacy” between the US and Venezuela. She criticized Maduro’s capture and just last week declared she’s had “enough” of “orders” from Washington — hardly the only comments where she’s distanced herself from the US government.
If the administration has any concerns about the dissonance between Rodríguez’s rhetoric and her actions, it’s not showing yet. Multiple sources close to Trump’s team told Semafor that the interim president will be judged on her “actions, not words,” as Rubio put it during testimony on Capitol Hill last week.
Sen. Bernie Moreno said that Rodriguez “has to say stupid sh-t” because she must appeal to a specific “audience” within the country. He called her a “lunatic” — albeit a cooperative one.
“But at the end of the day, she’s doing what we want her to do,” added Moreno, a Colombian-American and close ally of the White House.
One reason Trump aides are ignoring Rodríguez’s remarks for now: They see themselves as holding all the cards. The administration is continuing to point to its “leverage” against Venezuela, which include sanctions and control of the country’s oil.
“She’s on a short leash and doesn’t have much of a choice to comply,” said one person close to the White House who is also an ally of Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado. The bombastic comments are “her way of satisfying the remnants of the regime,” this person added.