Trump and Venezuela's Rodríguez hold first meeting in New York

U.S. President Donald Trump met Venezuelan interim President Delcy Rodríguez for the first time on Tuesday in New York, marking an unprecedented rapprochement between Washington and Caracas, the White House confirmed. The closed-door meeting occurred at the Lotte New York Palace hotel during a reception for foreign leaders at the UN High-Level Week, with U.S. officials including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent present. It followed a controversial deal granting the U.S. control over a fifth of Venezuela's oil reserves, and took place near the New York prison where Nicolás Maduro is held on drug charges. This is the first meeting between a U.S. president and a Venezuelan leader in over eleven years, since Barack Obama met Maduro in 2015. The Trump administration has backed Rodríguez's government since Maduro's capture in January and restored diplomatic ties broken since 2019, though critics question Washington's motives.