Machado: 'I handed my Nobel Prize to Trump'. US sells Venezuelan oil for half a billion

"Machado is an important voice for many people in Venezuela". This was said by White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt about the meeting between Donald Trump and Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who is conservative and considered pro-Trump by some but not supported by Trump in the hours after Nicolas Maduro's capture.

Venezuela's interim government led by Delcy Rodriguez - with whom Trump spoke on the phone earlier in the week - 'has met all our demands so far,' the White House spokeswoman continued in a press briefing. "We've had a great conversation and she's a great person," Trump commented in reference to the "long phone call" with Rodriguez.

Delcy Rodríguez presented the 2025 budget to the Caracas Parliament today, 15 January, representing President Nicolás Maduro, who was detained in the US with his wife Cilia Flores after the military operation on 3 January.

In his speech, broadcast on state television, Vtv, Rodríguez recalled the 'humble young Venezuelans' who fought that night, calling them protagonists of 'a new page in national history', and said that the government would turn the pain of Maduro's capture 'into work and hope to bring them home'.

He then described the president as a leader capable of facing difficulties 'with optimism, faith and trust in the people', even in a context marked by what he called a 'criminal economic blockade' and a 'naval blockade' imposed since last December.
Rodríguez reiterated the need for national unity and the defence of sovereignty, recalling the historical contrast between the Monroe Doctrine and the thought of Simón Bolívar. "The contradiction with Washington must be addressed on a diplomatic level and without submission," he said. On the economic front, the interim president claimed 19 consecutive quarters of growth and an increase in GDP, as well as the achievement of oil production of 1.2 million barrels per day. She also announced a partial reform of the hydrocarbons law to encourage new investments and pointed out that, for the first time in a decade, Venezuela did not import fuel.