The United States has urged Venezuela to follow a phased plan of stabilisation, economic recovery and political reconciliation before holding democratic elections, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said.
Mr Rubio discussed the proposed sequence with Venezuela’s foreign minister, Oliver Blanco, during talks on the country’s political future on Monday. Neither man spoke to reporters afterwards.
A US State Department readout said Washington had reaffirmed President Donald Trump’s “three-phase plan for Venezuela: stabilization, economic recovery and political reconciliation, and democratic transition”.
The meeting came almost a year after US forces abducted former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro from Caracas and took him to the United States to face drug trafficking and other charges.
Venezuela elections and Maria Corina Machado’s return
The plan envisages presidential elections in 2027, according to opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who returned to Venezuela last week after thanking Mr Trump and Mr Rubio for their support.
Ms Machado, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, said she had gone back to organise a movement ahead of the elections. She has also gifted her medal to Mr Trump in 2025.
Her political campaign is unfolding alongside the Trump administration’s efforts to secure oil agreements with the government of interim president Delcy Rodriguez, who served as Mr Maduro’s vice-president before taking over after his abduction.
Ms Rodriguez said elections would be held in Venezuela “with the world as witness”, but did not give a date. Ms Machado said she had received no message from the interim president or from Washington about a possible meeting.
She has also expressed scepticism about the oil agreement between Caracas and Washington, saying: “This agreement does not reflect the levels of transparency that Venezuelan society wants.”
Under the deal announced by the Trump administration, the United States would take a stake in a joint venture with North American Blue Energy Partners, a Venezuelan company owned by businessman Alejandro Betancourt. Caracas has granted the company 100-year rights over 17 oilfields, while the Pentagon is due to hold a 35 per cent stake and the US would have the right to buy 20 per cent of its oil output at cost.
