Star Metro - Interim Venezuela leader to visit US

Delcy Rodriguez would be the first sitting Venezuelan president to visit the United States in more than a quarter century -- aside from presidents attending United Nations meetings in New York.

She said Wednesday that she approached any dialogue with the United States "without fear."

"We are in a process of dialogue, of working with the United States, without any fear, to confront our differences and difficulties... and to address them through diplomacy," said Rodriguez.

The invitation reflects a head-snapping shift in relations between Washington and Caracas since US Delta Force operatives swooped into Caracas, seized president Nicolas Maduro and spirited him to a US jail to face narcotrafficking charges.

Rodriguez was a former vice president and long-time insider in Venezuela's authoritarian and anti-American government, before changing tack as interim president.

She is still the subject of US sanctions, including an asset freeze.

But with a flotilla of US warships still amassed off the Venezuelan coast, she has allowed the United States to broker the sale of Venezuelan oil, facilitated foreign investment and released dozens of political prisoners.

A senior White House official said Rodriguez would visit soon, but no date has been set.

- All for oil -

The last bilateral visit by a sitting Venezuelan president came in the 1990s -- before populist leader Hugo Chavez took power.

Since then, successive Venezuelan governments have made a point of thumbing their nose at Washington and building close ties with US foes in China, Cuba, Iran and Russia.

The US trip, which has yet to be confirmed by Venezuelan authorities, could pose problems for Rodriguez inside the government -- where some hardliners still detest what they see as Washington's hemispheric imperialism.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello and Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez remain powerful forces in the country, and analysts say their support for Rodriguez is not a given.

Trump has so far appeared happy to allow Rodriguez and much of the repressive government to remain in power, so long as the United States has access to Venezuelan oil -- the largest proven reserves in the world.

Trump hosted Venezuela's exiled opposition leader and Nobel peace laureate Maria Corina Machado at the White House earlier this month.

After initially dismissing Machado and her ability to control the country's powerful armed forces and intelligence services, he said Tuesday that he would "love" to have her "involved in some way."

Machado's party is widely considered to have won 2024 elections that Washington said were stolen by Maduro.

Analysts say Trump's embrace of Rodriguez and avoidance of wholesale regime change can be explained by an unwillingness to repeat mistakes made in the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

"Those kinds of intervention operations -- and the deployment of troops for stabilization -- have always ended very badly," said Benigno Alarcon, a politics expert at the Andres Bello Catholic University in Caracas.

Trump's stance has however angered democracy activists who argue that all political prisoners must be freed and granted amnesty, and Venezuela must hold fresh elections.

L.Mitchell--SMC