Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodriguez said on Wednesday that she held a “long, productive, and courteous” phone call with President Trump on Wednesday, a conversation that came less than two weeks after the US attack on Caracas to kidnap President Nicolas Maduro that killed more than 80 people.
Rodriguez wrote on X that the call was “conducted within a framework of mutual respect, in which we addressed a bilateral work agenda for the benefit of our peoples, as well as pending matters between our governments.”
Trump also spoke positively of the call, saying “tremendous progress” was being made. “We just had a great conversation today, and she’s a terrific person,” he told reporters in the Oval Office.
The president had previously threatened Rodriguez with a fate worse than Maduro’s if she didn’t do the US’s bidding. While Rodriguez has called for cooperation with the US, she has also continued to call for the release of Maduro and has strongly condemned the US aggression against her country.
Trump’s plan for the US to take over Venezuela’s oil industry received a cool reception from US oil executives, who were non-committal about the idea of investing in the country. For now, the US is forcing Venezuela to sell its oil through US-approved channels.
A US official told Reuters on Wednesday that the US completed its first sale of Venezuelan oil under a deal with the Venezuelan government. The official said that revenue from the initial sale, about $500 million, is being held in US-controlled bank accounts.
