Acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez claimed during a Thursday speech at the nation’s parliament that “if I have to go to Washington, I’ll go standing up, not crawling.”
Rodríguez visited the Venezuelan National Assembly — led by her brother Jorge Rodríguez — to present the executive’s 2025 yearly report on behalf of now-deposed dictator Nicolás Maduro, who was arrested by U.S. forces alongside his wife Cilia Flores on January 3 and will soon face trial on multiple narco-terrorism charges in New York.
The Chinese and Russian ambassadors to Caracas, Lan Hu and Sergey Melik-Bagdasarov, were some of the guests invited by the Venezuelan socialist regime to the event.
Throughout her speech, Rodríguez claimed that there is a “stain on relations between Venezuela and the United States, and told the Chinese and Russian ambassadors that “we know they [the U.S.] are a lethal nuclear potency.”
National Assembly president Jorge Rodríguez, Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodríguez and Minister of Interior Diosdado Cabello (R) arrive to the delivery of the first year’s government report at Palacio Federal Legislativo on January 15, 2026 in Caracas, Venezuela. (Jesus Vargas/Getty Images)
“We have seen your record in the history of humanity. We know, and we are not afraid to confront them diplomatically through political dialogue as appropriate and resolve this historical contradiction once and for all,” Rodríguez said.
“It is not that the Acting President is afraid because she is being threatened, no, no, no, Venezuela is being threatened, all of Venezuela is being threatened, and that is why I call for national unity, so that with sovereignty at the forefront, we can fight the diplomatic battle,” she urged at another point of her speech.
“And I tell you that if one day, as Acting President, I have to go to Washington, I will do so standing tall, walking, not crawling, and I will do so with the tricolor flag. I will do so with [Venezuelan anthem] Gloria al Bravo Pueblo beating in my heart,” she continued.
Rodríguez shared a clip of her remarks through social media.
The Venezuelan “Acting President” delivered her speech at the National Assembly moments after President Donald Trump met with anti-socialist Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado at the White House. Machado, who gifted President Trump with the Nobel Peace Prize medal she received in Oslo on December, told reporters and Venezuelans outside the White House, “Know that we are counting on President Trump for the freedom of Venezuela.”
“It was my Great Honor to meet María Corina Machado, of Venezuela, today. She is a wonderful woman who has been through so much. María presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done. Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect. Thank you María!” President Trump wrote on a Truth Social post.
President Trump announced on Wednesday that he held a “very good” phone conversation with Rodríguez earlier that day where they both discussed “many topics.” In a social media post, Rodríguez described her conversation with Trump as “long and cordial,” conducted in a “spirit of mutual respect in which we discussed a bilateral agenda for the benefit of our peoples, as well as pending issues between our governments.”
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