Venezuela’s acting president said Nicolás Maduro stays the country’s ‘legitimate’ leader, despite being held within the U.S. on charges of federal drug trafficking and narco-terrorism.
“I can inform you President Nicolás Maduro is the legitimate president,” Venezuela’s Delcy Rodriguez said in an NBC News interview.
Maduro pleaded not guilty to the costs in January.
With the comments, Rodriguez is constant to make the case that last month’s U.S. operation to capture Maduro last was a violation of Venezuelan sovereignty at the same time as the Trump administration says she’s cooperating with their effort to overhaul Venezuela’s vast oil industry.
U.S. forces whisked Maduro and his wife to Latest York to face drug conspiracy charges. Rodriguez within the interview said the Maduros are “innocent.”
Rodriguez met with Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Wednesday in Caracas.
Wright is anticipated to fulfill with government officials, oil executives and others during a three-day visit to the South American country.
Wright’s visit comes because the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump continues to lift sanctions to permit foreign corporations to operate in Venezuela and help rebuild the nation’s most vital industry. It follows last month’s enactment of a Venezuelan law that opened the nation’s oil sector to non-public investment, reversing a tenet of the self-proclaimed socialist movement that has ruled the country for greater than twenty years.
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“I bring today a message from President Trump,” Wright told reporters as he stood next to Rodríguez with flags from each countries behind them.
“He’s passionately committed to utterly transforming the connection between the USA and Venezuela, a part of a broader agenda to make the Americas great again, to bring our countries closer together, to bring commerce, peace, prosperity, jobs, opportunity to the people of Venezuela.”
Rodríguez was sworn into her latest role after the brazen Jan. 3 seizure of then-President Nicolás Maduro in a U.S. military attack in Caracas. She proposed the overhaul of the country’s energy law after Trump said his administration would take control of Venezuela’s oil exports and revitalize the ailing industry by luring foreign investment.
Rodríguez on Wednesday acknowledged that Venezuela’s relationship with the U.S. has had “highs and lows” but said each countries are actually working on a mutually benefiting “energy agenda.”
“Let diplomatic dialogue … and energy dialogue be the suitable and suitable channels for the U.S. and Venezuela to maturely determine learn how to move forward,” she said.
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