Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, used a speech before the United Nations General Assembly to promise that her government would hold a democratic vote, vowing to oversee an “orderly legal transition” after years of authoritarian rule by her party.
“I wish to say the following loud and clear at this General Assembly,” she said on Wednesday evening. “In Venezuela, there will be elections.”
Her appearance before global leaders was the first in-person address of a Venezuelan head of state at the assembly since 2018. Her predecessor, Nicolás Maduro, had stayed away from the New York event for fear of arrest. Mr. Maduro was captured by U.S. forces in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, earlier this year, making Ms. Rodríguez the acting president.
Ms. Rodríguez has since handed enormous power over to Washington, which now controls Venezuela’s finances and significant parts of its resources.
In her address, Ms. Rodríguez praised a recent oil deal with the United States and called for a resetting of international relations, including a dialogue with neighboring Guyana, a nation with which it has a territorial dispute.
But Ms. Rodríguez used a large part of her time to speak to Venezuelans.
“The world has taught us that some of the most solid democratic transitions of the modern world were not born from fracture or breakdowns but from a transformation spearheaded with iron resolve by institutions themselves,” she said. “This is our inspiration.”
The promise of an election and shift to democracy is likely to be met with skepticism from many Venezuelans. Ms. Rodríguez’s party, in power since 1999, spent years shaping and then rigging the vote in its favor, disqualifying popular opposition candidates and doling out favors to government supporters. In 2024, it stole an election won by the movement of popular opposition leader María Corina Machado, according to independent observers and the United States government.
As acting president, Ms. Rodríguez faces enormous pressure to show Venezuelans that she will be a changemaker. Poverty and repression continue, and Ms. Rodríguez knows that if she doesn’t address basic needs, and a desire to speak freely, she and her party risk losing power.
Her government has initiated a dialogue with a wing of the opposition that does not include Ms. Machado. That conversation is focused in part on rebuilding electoral institutions.
Ms. Rodríguez spoke at the U.N. headquarters in Manhattan as her onetime ally, Mr. Maduro, sits in a jail in Brooklyn, awaiting trial on federal charges of narcoterrorism.
A day before the speech, Ms. Rodríguez met with President Trump, posing with the U.S. leader as he flashed a thumbs up. She called the meeting “historic” in a social media post and said that the two had discussed “strengthening the bilateral relationship” and advancing cooperation on energy, mining and security.
During the meeting, Mr. Trump called for a new election to take place in Venezuela, according to a U.S. official speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the meeting, which the person described as positive and brief.
Ms. Rodríguez responded to Mr. Trump by agreeing to a vote, according to the official.
Just days before Ms. Rodríguez arrived in New York, a U.N. mission charged with investigating human rights abuses in Venezuela published a report that said that “state institutions responsible for repression, gross human rights violations and crimes against humanity remain fundamentally intact” under Ms. Rodríguez.
While Ms. Rodríguez is being greeted in New York, Ms. Machado has said that she continues to be blocked from entering her country. The opposition leader left Venezuela last year to attend the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony.
Apparently trying to highlight the contrast between her freedom of movement and that of Ms. Rodríguez, Ms. Machado’s allies said she made three failed attempts to enter Venezuela on Tuesday.
“During the last 24 hours, María Corina Machado has been denied entry into Venezuela three times,” said David Smolansky, a representative. “She has attempted to enter the country by air and sea but has been turned away each time.”
Mr. Smolansky did not specify who had blocked Ms. Machado’s entry.
In her speech at the U.N., Ms. Rodríguez did not set a timeline for a new vote. Instead she said: “The Venezuelan people, with its age-old wisdom, will determine when the correct time for these elections is.”
Zolan Kanno-Youngs contributed reporting from Washington.
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