Delcy Rodríguez tells the UN there will be elections in Venezuela, without setting a date

Venezuela's acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, announced on Wednesday before the United Nations General Assembly that her country will hold elections, without specifying when, and thanked US President Donald Trump for “his willingness to return to the path of diplomatic relations and cooperation”.

“Democracy is not measured by the existence of elections. Democracy is measured by the quality of the competition that precedes those elections. An election should be a solution, not a generator of irreconcilable conflicts,” she said before the announcement. She added: “I want to say it very clearly in this General Assembly: in Venezuela there will be elections and, in that direction, we have begun a political dialogue with sectors of the opposition,” under “equal conditions for all”. On timing, she said “the Venezuelan people, with their ancestral wisdom, will determine the right moment”.

Rodríguez said Venezuela has begun an “orderly, institutional and verifiable” transition to democracy, citing among its pillars a reform of the justice system and the “responsible exercise” of politics. She said the country had endured “two great and painful trials” this year: the “strangulation of its internal political life and the sharpened confrontation with the United States”, and the double earthquake of June 24, which left more than 6,500 dead. “Venezuela is being reborn,” she concluded, in a speech lasting under twenty minutes.

It was the first address by a Venezuelan head of state to the body's plenary since 2018, when Nicolás Maduro spoke. The tone contrasted with Rodríguez's own remarks in the same forum in 2019, when as vice president she said she came “in the name of the Venezuela that does not kneel before any imperial power”, conveyed Maduro's greetings and denounced Trump's “supremacist hatred” and “imperial claws”.

She did not mention Maduro at any point. Her predecessor remains in US custody alongside his wife Cilia Flores, awaiting trial on drug trafficking and related charges, which he rejects. Before her address, videos circulated in which Rodríguez declined to say whether she would visit Maduro at the Brooklyn detention centre where he is held.

The acting president also praised the agreement granting the United States access to more than 65 billion barrels of proven reserves, a share the US government puts at around a quarter of the country's total. Trump had referred to the deal the previous day, from the same podium, with the phrase “to the victor belong the spoils”.

According to Axios, citing White House sources, Trump pressed Rodríguez during Tuesday's meeting to call elections: “In the end, you're going to have to call elections,” he reportedly said. Neither participant confirmed that account. Secretary of State Marco Rubio framed it differently on Wednesday, saying the ultimate goal is “free and fair elections” but that an economic collapse must first be avoided. “If there is a social collapse or an economic crisis in Venezuela, not only are the elections in jeopardy, but also the survival of democracy in the country,” he said.

Rodríguez took office in an acting capacity on January 5, two days after Maduro's capture in a US military operation in Caracas, and faces questions over her legitimacy for not having been elected. Separately, the circle around opposition leader María Corina Machado said this week that three attempts to return to the country from Panama had been thwarted, bringing the total to seven in recent weeks.

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