Maduro is still the ‘legitimate president’ of Venezuela, acting leader tells NBC News

Nicolás Maduro is still the legitimate leader of Venezuela, 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 Rodríguez told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker in 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 President Donald Trump. A high-profile visit Wednesday by the U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright came as the two countries hammered out details of how Venezuela’s vast oil reserves are to be distributed.

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 and sanctioned by the first Trump administration, Rodríguez’s path to power has not been conventional.

In the days following Maduro’s capture on Jan. 3, Rodríguez was 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 U.S. 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.”

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.

After being released from prison on Sunday, prominent opposition figure Juan Pablo Guanipa was rearrested and is currently under house arrest, according to a post on X by his son Ramon Guanipa.

“Ronald Reagan, trust but verify. Trust but verify. We’ve been dealing with Delcy for five weeks now. It’s been an amazing cooperation,” Secretary Wright told Welker in an exclusive interview in Caracas on Wednesday.

“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. So I would say that cooperation is off to a tremendous start.”

There has been over $1 billion in Venezuelan oil sold and another $5 billion in oil sales are expected in the coming months, Wright told NBC News.