US says Venezuela’s interim president to visit as relations shift post-Maduro

Venezuela’s interim president will soon visit the United States, a senior US official said Wednesday, further signalling US President Donald Trump’s willingness to embrace the oil-rich country’s new leader.

Delcy Rodriguez would be the first sitting Venezuelan president to visit the United States in more than a quarter of a century – aside from presidents attending United Nations meetings in New York.

She said on Wednesday that she approached any dialogue with the United States “without fear”.

“We are in a process of dialogue, of working with the United States, without any fear, to confront our differences and difficulties … and to address them through diplomacy,” said Rodriguez.

The invitation reflects a head-snapping shift in relations between Washington and Caracas since US Delta Force operatives swooped into Caracas, seized president Nicolas Maduro and spirited him to a US jail to face narcotrafficking charges.