Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, a minister closely associated with Maduro’s authoritarian rule, called the interim president’s meeting with Trump “a great triumph of the diplomacy of peace”.
But opposition voices expressed their disapproval over the meeting, viewing it as a snub of their calls – that the US has previously endorsed – for swift elections.
Pedro Mario Burelli, a former Venezuelan state oil company executive and opposition commentator, called the two world leaders “the shameless puppet and her unscrupulous and undignified puppet-master”, adding: “Little has changed in Venezuela under Washington’s clumsy and selective oversight.”
Venezuela’s last elections, held in 2024, in which Maduro was declared the winner, were widely disputed as rigged. Opposition tallies suggested their candidate, who stood after Machado was barred from running, had won by 70% of the vote.
Despite this, the Trump administration backed Rodriguez, Maduro’s former vice-president, as his successor rather than opposition leader María Corina Machado after Maduro was seized and put on trial on drug charges in January.
Analysts at the time cast this decision as the US choosing short-term stability in Venezuela until elections could be held.
Rodriguez used her UN General Assembly speech on Thursday to reiterate that there “will be elections in Venezuela”, without specifying when.
