“Acting President” of Venezuela Delcy Rodríguez landed in New Jersey late Sunday night to participate in this week’s U.N. General Assembly.
Rodríguez is expected to meet with President Donald Trump on Tuesday before delivering her speech at the U.N. later this week.
Numerous heads of state will travel to New York in the coming hours to participate in the 81st session of the U.N. General Assembly, with general debates running from Tuesday, September 22, to Monday, September 28. Per the United Nations, the theme of this year’s debates will be “Restoring trust, managing transformation: A United Nations that delivers for all.”
Acting President of Venezuela Delcy Rodríguez and her delegation are greeted by U.S. Chargé d’affaires to Venezuela John Barrett on Sunday, September 20, 2026, at Teterboro Airport in Bergen County, New Jersey. (X/delcyrodriguezv)
Rodríguez, who has been the head of the Venezuelan socialist regime since the arrest of dictator Nicolás Maduro by U.S. forces on January 3, announced her arrival in the U.S. in a social media post, affirming that she arrives “with the resolve and hope of a people who believe in the encounter and unity among nations.”
“At the 81st General Assembly of the United Nations, Venezuela will be present to make its voice heard and defend its principles, with a work agenda based on respect, cooperation, and understanding,” Rodríguez said, adding in a separate post, “We are a country that bets on peace, dialogue, and the construction of shared paths.”
Per VTV, the Venezuelan regime’s main propaganda news channel, Rodríguez and her delegation arrived at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, where she was greeted by U.S. Chargé d’affaires to Venezuela John Barrett. The “acting president” is reportedly expected to deliver her speech before the U.N. on Thursday, September 24, with an agenda at the U.N. focused on strengthening “Venezuela’s strategic cooperation ties and peace diplomacy.”
This year marks the first time a Venezuelan head of state has led the socialist regime’s delegation to the U.N. General Assembly since Nicolás Maduro’s last in-person appearance in 2018. Maduro’s 2018 U.N. speech took place months before the socialist dictator illegitimately clung to power after holding a sham “election” that year, plunging the South American nation into another political crisis beginning in 2019. The now-deposed dictator and his wife, Cilia Flores, are presently several miles away from the U.N. headquarters, detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn awaiting trial on multiple drug trafficking charges.
VTV further detailed that Rodríguez will begin her “institutional activities” as part of the U.N. General Assembly on Monday. No additional details have been disclosed by the Venezuelan regime at press time.
Similarly, neither Rodríguez nor any member of her regime has made any indication that the “acting president” intends to meet with her imprisoned former boss during her stay in New York. VTV, and other state-owned or affiliated outlets such as the left-wing propaganda network Telesur, made note that the United Nations lists Rodríguez as “Head of State” in official U.N. documentation.
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Following Maduro’s arrest, Rodríguez has been actively collaborating with the United States and the administration of President Donald Trump, signing several bilateral agreements over the past months after decades of a hostile anti-U.S. policy maintained by Maduro and late dictator Hugo Chávez. Most notably, the countries signed a historic oil agreement in August that grants the U.S. control of 65 billion barrels of Venezuela’s reserves.
According to multiple reports published over the weekend, Rodríguez is expected to meet with President Trump on Tuesday. Per Reuters, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz said during a briefing call that the encounter will take place on the sidelines of an upcoming reception hosted by Trump.
“The president will host a U.N. General Assembly leaders’ reception. There, he’ll participate in a pull-aside with the acting president Rodríguez of Venezuela,” Ambassador Waltz reportedly said.
Rodríguez’s travel to the United States occurs just hours after she met with Paraguay’s conservative President Santiago Peña in Caracas on Saturday. The encounter between the socialist “acting president” and the conservative president marks the first high-level encounter between the nations after Nicolás Maduro unilaterally cut ties with Paraguay in January 2025, days before the now-deposed dictator began what would have been a third fraudulently obtained six-year presidential term before he was arrested by the United States this year. Paraguay was one of numerous other countries that did not recognize Nicolás Maduro’s fraudulent 2024 election, which Maduro and the socialist regime claim he “won.”
“Working together for a more integrated Paraguay. We are advancing in a working visit with the interim president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguez,” President Peña wrote on social media. “During this meeting of mutual respect, we addressed fundamental issues such as Venezuela’s institutional process, the strengthening of the economy, and our joint fight against transnational organized crime.”
“Additionally, we initiated a dialogue focused on the well-being of citizens and on the eventual restoration of our diplomatic and consular relations,” he continued.
Rodríguez described her encounter with Peña as a “space to resume bilateral ties and build new joint work opportunities for the benefit of our peoples.”
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
