Venezuela‘s interim president promises election after Maduro ousted

Venezuela's interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, has announced that elections will be held as part of a transition to "full democracy", but did not specify a date.

Rodríguez was sworn in just days after her predecessor in office, Nicolás Maduro, was seized by US forces and taken to New York to face drug-trafficking charges.

She has enjoyed the backing of the Trump administration despite her previously close ties to Maduro.

The opposition in Venezuela has slammed her for not setting even a tentative date for elections.

Speaking at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, Rodríguez insisted that "there will be elections in Venezuela" and that the Venezuelan people would determine "the right moment" when to hold them.

The interim president, who was a close ally of Maduro and served as his vice-president until his ouster by the US, did not mention the jailed former leader once.

Less than nine months after the US raid on the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, in which the presidential couple was seized and about 100 people killed, she instead thanked US President Donald Trump "for his willingness to take the path of diplomatic relations and cooperation".

She also said that her government and the Trump administration were "working seriously to resolve existing differences through dialogue", adding that the two nations were paving "the way for energy relations, the promotion of security, the common fight against transnational crime and economic cooperation for the benefit of both peoples and our continent".

Unlike Rodríguez, President Trump did make ample references to Maduro during his speech to the assembly, calling him an "outlaw dictator, a real criminal".

Trump also celebrated the signing of what he said was "the largest oil deal in history covering 65bn barrels of oil" which the US has struck with Rodríguez's interim government.

"To the victor belong the spoils," he stated, adding that "if necessary, we will use our unmatched military might to secure the vital national interest of the United States".

While he did not mention elections in his speech at the UN, Trump told the LA Times earlier this month that he did not think Venezuela was ready yet.

The two leaders also briefly met Tuesday on the sidelines.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who attended the meeting, said that the two presidents had discussed elections. However, he appeared to urge Venezuelan opposition politicians to be patient.

Rubio insisted that first, there would have to be a "political transition process" to rebuild the institutions necessary to have free and fair elections.

"What we don't want to see (…) would be that someone is elected, and they inherit a complete catastrophe, economic and social," he said.

Rubio also pointed to negotiations under way between Venezuela's interim government and some members of the opposition as a sign of progress.

Critics of the negotiations have, however, pointed out that Venezuela's most prominent opposition leader, María Corina Machado, is not part of the talks.

Machado, who left Venezuela in December to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, has not been able to return to the country since.

One of her advisers said that she had made three attempts to travel to her home country this week but that all three had been thwarted.

Machado remains barred from standing for office - a ban imposed under the Maduro government - and Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello has in the past said that should she return, the authorities would have "a surprise" in store for her.