Venezuelan interim President Delcy Rodríguez said elections would be held as part of a transition to full democracy but gave no date, prompting opposition criticism after the disputed 2024 vote that kept Nicolás Maduro in power. Speaking at the UN General Assembly, she thanked President Donald Trump for pursuing diplomatic engagement and said their governments were working through differences on energy, security, transnational crime and economic cooperation. Trump said the United States had signed a 65 billion-barrel oil deal with Rodríguez’s interim government. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Venezuela first needed a political transition process to rebuild institutions for free and fair elections. Rodríguez succeeded Maduro after US forces seized him in Caracas and took him to New York on drug-trafficking charges. Opposition leader María Corina Machado remains excluded from negotiations and barred from standing for office.