Nicolás Madurois still the legitimate leader ofVenezuela, the country's acting president said in an exclusive interview with NBC News.
"I can tell you President Nicolás Maduro is the legitimate president. I will tell you this as a lawyer, that I am. Both President Maduro and Cilia Flores, the first lady, are both innocent,"acting President Delcy Rodrígueztold NBC News' "Meet the Press" moderator Kristen Welkerin Caracas, in her first interview with an American journalist since taking office.
As her predecessor sits in a federal detention facility in New York after being captured by U.S. forces last month, Rodríguez is now seemingly being welcomed back into the diplomatic fold by PresidentDonald Trump.
A high-profile visit Wednesday by Energy Secretary Chris Wright came as the two countries hammered out details of how Venezuela's vast oil reserves are to be distributed.
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She added, "I can tell you I am in charge of the presidency of Venezuela, as it's stated clearly in the constitution of Venezuela. And from the amount of work that I have, from how busy I am, I can tell you it's very, very hard work and we're doing it completely day by day."
The daughter of a revolutionary andsanctioned by the first Trump administration,Rodríguez'spath to power has not been conventional.
In the days following Maduro's capture Jan. 3,Rodríguezwas highly critical of the U.S. military action against him. She has since softened her tone and relented to U.S. pressure and demands, raising the possibility of a visit to the United States after two phone calls with Trump.
"I have been invited to the States," Rodríguez told NBC News, adding that "we're contemplating coming there once we establish this cooperation and we can move forward with everything."
Wright told Welker that cooperation with the Venezuelan government had been "amazing" and got off to a "tremendous start."
"She's delivered information. Everything we know so far has turned out to be true. She's made enormous positive changes, including already changing the hydrocarbon law in the country in the first few weeks," he said during an interview Wednesday. "So I would say that cooperation is off to a tremendous start."
There has been more than $1 billion in Venezuelan oil sold and another $5 billion in oil sales are expected in the coming months, Wright told NBC News.
"So the Venezuelans are in charge here in Venezuela, but the United States has enormous leverage over the interim authorities in Venezuela — the largest revenue source that funds the government, that funds the government of Venezuela is now controlled by the United States," Wright said.
"If they're driving positive change that benefits Americans and is improving the life opportunities of people in Venezuela, that money will flow. If they steer off that path, we have just simply tremendous leverage."
Still, the current government has not entirely shed the authoritarian ways of Maduro or his predecessor, the late President Hugo Chávez, who largely established the infrastructure of the current security state in Venezuela.
Dozens ofpolitical prisoners have been releasedin recent weeks and political space within the country has opened up to the point where a protest demanding the release of more prisoners was held last week in front of the country's highest court, an act that only months ago could have resulted in arrest, jail time or worse.
But despite promises by Rodriguez's government that detained opposition leaders, journalists and human rights activists would be released, more than 640 are still being held, according to leading Venezuelan rights group Foro Penal.
And even after being let go, former prisoners are often not truly free. Among those is Juan Pablo Guanipa, a close ally of Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado, whowas rearrestedand is under house arrest, according toa post on Xby his son.
Saying that the country was proceeding with an "amnesty plan" put in place before Maduro was seized and she became acting president, Rodriguez implied that some of those considered political prisoners had been behind violence in the country.
"Between 2014 and 2017, we experienced great, great violence in the streets of Venezuela," she said, adding that the government was in the midst of a "deep evaluation of the judicial system."
Violence has accompanied some elections in Venezuela, with the lead-up to theJuly 28, 2024, vote seeing widespread repression, including disqualifications, arrests and human rights violations. Protests after the election, which Maduro is widely believed to have lost to a coalition headed by Machado, descended into violence.
Asked whether Venezuela would hold "free and fair" elections, Rodriguez said, "Absolutely."
"To hold free and just elections in Venezuela, it means also having a country free and where justice can be practiced," she added. "Free from sanctions."
It was also not clear when, or even if, Machado, Venezuela's most prominent opposition activist, could safely return to the country.
Despitegifting her Nobel Peace Prize medalto Trump during a White House visit last month, Machado has yet to be fully embraced by the president as a serious political contender in Venezuela.
"With regards to her life, we do not understand why there's such a fuss about it," Rodríguez told NBC News. "With regards to her coming back to the country, she will have to answer to Venezuela. Why she called upon a military intervention, why she called upon sanctions to Venezuela, and why she celebrated the actions that took place at the beginning of January."