CIA Director John Ratcliffe has travelled to Venezuela to meet with acting President Delcy Rodríguez, becoming the highest ranking Trump administration official to visit the South American country after the U.S. raid that captured former leader Nicolás Maduro.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe visited Venezuela on Thursday to meet with acting President Delcy Rodríguez, becoming the highest-ranking official from the Trump administration to engage with the country since US forces captured former President Nicolás Maduro. The two-hour meeting in Caracas was described by a US official as aimed at signalling Washington’s interest in improving relations with Venezuela.
The official spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the visit occurred at President Donald Trump’s urging. It coincided with Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado presenting her Nobel Peace Prize to Trump in Washington, even as the president has largely sidelined her in policy discussions.
Ratcliffe’s visit is likely to be seen as an indication of Trump’s willingness to work with Rodríguez, who had served as Maduro’s second-in-command until the recent U.S. operation that captured the former leader and brought him to the United States to face drug trafficking charges. The CIA played a key role in the operation, providing critical intelligence support and executing a prior drone strike on a cartel-controlled dock, according to U.S. officials.
During the talks, Ratcliffe reportedly discussed potential economic collaboration between the United States and Venezuela and emphasised that the country should prevent the return of American adversaries, including drug traffickers. Rodríguez, for her part, used her first state of the union address as acting president on Thursday to advocate for opening Venezuela’s state-run oil industry to more foreign investment, following the Trump administration’s pledge to seize control of the country’s crude sales.
The meeting included a small team of U.S. officials and, according to the U.S. official, was intended to lay the groundwork for additional cooperation between the Trump administration and Venezuela’s new leadership. Analysts note that while Machado’s Nobel recognition highlights opposition voices, Trump appears to be prioritising engagement with the interim administration under Rodríguez as a pragmatic step to stabilise relations.
With inputs from agencies
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