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NEW YORK: Venezuela\u2019s interim President Delcy Rodriguez arrived in New York this week for the UN General Assembly seeking business deals on debt, energy and \u200bmining, to demonstrate the once-sanctioned country was open for business again after US forces removed her predecessor in January.<\/strong><\/p>\n She pledged in her speech before the UN that the South \u200cAmerican OPEC member would hold elections as part of a transition to \u201cfull democracy.\u201d She left with photographs of herself alongside US President Donald Trump, but obtained no concrete agreements.<\/span><\/p>\n It was her first visit to the US since American forces captured then-President Nicolas Maduro in a January raid. It demonstrated Washington\u2019s deep control over her administration and showed Venezuela\u2019s need for new alliances to align with Trump\u2019s aspirations, analysts said.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cRodriguez enjoyed a week of high visibility. Yet, when we make a list of concrete results, \u200bthe outcome is modest. Where are the disbursements, the reconstruction package or the business deals? They did not materialize on the scale that would have allowed New York to be portrayed \u200bas Venezuela\u2019s great financial comeback,\u201d said Washington-based analyst Antonio De La Cruz.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cTo the victor belong the spoils,\u201d Trump said in a Tuesday address to the assembly \u2060as Rodriguez listened, reminding her that the US stood ready to use its \u201cunmatched military might.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Trump did not mention Rodriguez by name in his speech, and no readout was published on his brief \u201cpull-aside\u201d meeting with her. \u200bLeftist leaders from other nations who once backed Maduro kept their distance, while Venezuelans living in the US protested outside the UN with signs depicting Rodriguez in a jail-style orange jumpsuit.<\/span><\/p>\n De La Cruz said Trump showed \u200bWashington is shaping the new Venezuelan landscape, while Rodriguez demonstrated she is the key interlocutor. \u201cBut she now bears an additional consequence: she will have to explain when Venezuelans will actually vote.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n For nine months, Rodriguez had avoided giving signals about an election, while US officials kept expectations at bay by saying it would take time to materialize. Analysts and Venezuelan opposition parties now say the clock is ticking to set a date, while experts estimate it will take at least 12 months \u200bto appoint reliable authorities and organize the voting.<\/span><\/p>\n The White House and Venezuela\u2019s information and foreign affairs ministries did not reply to requests for comment about a possible election and details of the bilateral talks.<\/span><\/p>\n Talks with US officials, multilateral lenders, allied governments and energy and mining companies were expected to produce signed agreements, even if preliminary, sources had said ahead of the Venezuelan delegation\u2019s trip. As of Saturday, none had been announced.<\/span><\/p>\n The \u200chead of the \u2060Inter-American Development Bank said the multilateral was working to secure approval for a $2.5 billion bridge loan for Venezuela. But some members of the IDB boardoppose making the loan, Reuters reported on Tuesday.<\/span><\/p>\n Inside the UN, the Venezuelans were largely on their own. The Cuban delegation, once the South American nation\u2019s closest ally, walked out of the hall when Trump\u2019s speech turned to Cuba, while Rodriguez stayed as he called Maduro an \u201coutlaw dictator.\u201d Officials from Caracas and Havana avoided each other, sources said.<\/span><\/p>\n When Rodriguez crossed the floor to greet Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, he awkwardly finished a phone call before standing to receive her. Sanchez later described the greeting as \u201cnormal.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Meanwhile, \u200ba source told Reuters that the Russian delegation sought \u200bout a meeting with Foreign Minister Felix \u2060Plasencia to discuss the country\u2019s stakes in oil projects in Venezuela. There have been reports that ExxonMobil (XOM.N), opens new tab has had negotiations for a return into the large Petromonagas development, partially owned by Russia\u2019s state firm Roszarubezhneft.<\/span><\/p>\n Russia\u2019s foreign ministry, its mission to the UN in New York and its embassy in Caracas did not immediately reply to requests \u200bfor comment.<\/span><\/p>\n Brazil\u2019s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the region\u2019s most prominent leftist leader, told CNN that the US treats Rodriguez as if it were \u200bher boss and that, in her \u2060place, he would call elections.<\/span><\/p>\n Outside, more than 50 protesters carried signs reading \u201cNew Face, Same Regime\u201d and chanted that Rodriguez should join Maduro in the Brooklyn jail where he is being held pending trial.<\/span><\/p>\n Following Rodriguez\u2019s meeting with Trump, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the two discussed restructuring Venezuela\u2019s sovereign debt and that Washington pressed for political change, both hard topics for her administration. \u201cFor this project to be successful, it culminates in a free and \u2060fair election,\u201d Rubio \u200bsaid.<\/span><\/p>\n While Rodriguez visited the US, media reports said Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who could be a strong candidate \u200bin an eventual election, was again prevented from returning to her country from Panama.<\/span><\/p>\n Nicmer Evans, political analyst and former supporter of late leftist President Hugo Chavez, theorized on X that Rodriguez had allowed herself to be \u201cdoubly humiliated\u201d in exchange for Trump withholding support to \u200bMachado.<\/span><\/p>\nMUCH NOISE, \u200bNO DEALS<\/span><\/h2>\n