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Elections Deferred
U.S. President Donald Trump said Venezuela is not ready to hold elections after the ouster of President Nicolás Maduro by U.S. forces, telling reporters in the Oval Office on Friday, “They're not really ready for them yet,” and adding, “They're not ready yet for the elections, but at some point they will be.”
Trump praised Delcy Rodriguez, who has served as acting president since Maduro’s capture on Jan. 3, saying she was “doing a fantastic job,” while also pivoting to Venezuela’s oil industry and saying the United States is “taking a lot also for, you know, for our efforts.”
In the same remarks, Trump defended his administration’s legal actions against journalists from The New York Times, saying, “We're not after journalists, we're after leakers,” and describing the approach as a way to identify sources of leaks.
Trump also defended tariffs announced this week targeting 60 economies as “very standard tariffs” that “follow the line,” linking them to the administration’s claim that affected countries failed to adequately enforce bans on goods produced with forced labor.
In a separate report, WPLG Local 10 said Trump told reporters during a White House news conference that “They are not ready yet for the elections, but at some point they will be, and we are going to be standing right on top of it.”
Rubio’s Roadmap
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in June that Venezuela needs a free press and a new electoral commission first, and NDTV reported that Trump has been “far cagier on the likelihood of elections” even after the American military operation on January 3 toppled Maduro.
WPLG Local 10 framed Rubio’s position as part of a three-phase plan for stabilization, recovery, and transition, quoting Rubio as saying, “That money will then be handled in such a way that we will control how it is disbursed in a way that benefits the Venezuelan people, not corruption, not the regime.”
El País reported that Trump insisted “they are not yet prepared for that,” while also saying “there have been many advances,” and it described Washington’s oversight of interim president Delcy Rodríguez after Maduro’s arrest on January 3.
El País also said Venezuelan Parliament talks backed by Washington were set to begin on August 1, with Dinorah Figuera and Jorge Rodríguez named as interlocutors and with María Corina Machado not participating.
In the same broader context of earthquakes and reconstruction, WPLG Local 10 said Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado traveled to Panama after 7.2 and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes struck northern Venezuela on June 24, and it quoted her in Spanish: “Even though I cannot be there physically, I am with each of you — with every family still grieving those they lost, and with those who continue to seek answers,”
Oil, Oversight, and Uncertainty
Trump tied his stance on elections to the pace of stabilization and oil output, praising exports and saying “The amount of oil currently coming out of Venezuela right now” was “a very fertile territory,” while WPLG Local 10 said the U.S. described the relationship as mutually beneficial and said Trump was “very popular” in Venezuela.
Folha de S.Paulo reported that Trump said the oil is being shipped to Houston and to Louisiana to be refined, and it added that “we have paid for the war many times over,” while also noting that after the intervention the regime freed hundreds of political prisoners and announced the closure of Helicóide.
FactCheck.org challenged Trump’s broader claims about Venezuela’s election manipulation, saying Trump’s speech included an incomplete and distorted summary of CIA reporting and quoting Trump’s assertion that “Today, we are releasing documents that show the CIA obtained reporting of a specific plot.”
FactCheck.org said the CIA report concluded Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and his successor Maduro “developed sustained interest and likely some capability” to manipulate voting machines, but it also said the CIA assessment stopped short of alleging Venezuela carried out plans to alter voting machine tallies.
In the political stakes described by the sources, Negocios said the postponement of elections “renders the transition an open process” largely subject to decisions of Washington and the interim administration, and it warned that Delcy Rodríguez “remains at the head of the country without having obtained a direct mandate at the ballot box.”
