Florida Republican Rep. Mar\u00eda Elvira Salazar defended President Donald Trump\u2019s planned meeting with Venezuela\u2019s acting president, Delcy Rodr\u00edguez, in New York, describing Rodr\u00edguez as a \u201cnecessary evil\u201d for now as part of efforts to stabilize the country. Salazar made the comments Sunday during an interview with Margaret Brennan on CBS News\u2019 \u201cFace the Nation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Responding to a question about Trump meeting with Rodr\u00edguez, whom Salazar had previously criticized for her role in the government of Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, the congresswoman said the encounter should be viewed within what she described as a broader U.S. strategy for Venezuela. She said the approach involves forcing former actors in power to create conditions for other political actors to enter the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Salazar referred to a sequence of \u201crecovery and then transition\u201d that she attributed to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. She said she expects the stabilization phase to eventually lead to new elections with international observers, presenting that as a subsequent step toward a political transition in Venezuela.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The comments came ahead of a planned meeting between Trump and Rodr\u00edguez in New York during the United Nations General Assembly. According to the Associated Press, the meeting is expected to be an informal \u201cpull-aside\u201d rather than a formal bilateral meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Salazar\u2019s remarks also marked a notable change in tone from her previous criticism of Rodr\u00edguez. During the CBS interview, Brennan reminded Salazar that she had previously described Rodr\u00edguez as a figure involved in the Venezuelan security apparatus and blamed her for contributing to the country\u2019s deterioration. Salazar nevertheless defended the planned meeting as part of the broader strategy she described.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Florida Republican Rep. Mar\u00eda Elvira Salazar defended President Donald Trump\u2019s planned meeting with Venezuela\u2019s acting president, Delcy Rodr\u00edguez, in New York, describing Rodr\u00edguez as a \u201cnecessary evil\u201d for now as part of efforts to stabilize the country. Salazar made the comments Sunday during an interview with Margaret Brennan on CBS News\u2019 \u201cFace the Nation.\u201d Responding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":524020,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[611,40230],"class_list":["post-524019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-international","tag-deultimominuto","tag-united-states"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phj1q1-2cjV","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/09\/Maria-Elvira-Salazar-justifica-reunion-de-Donald-Trump-con-Delcy-Rodriguez-en-Nueva-York-Es-un-mal-necesario.webp","dum_api":{"author_name":"Edith B\u00e1ez","author_image":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/cropped-WhatsApp-Image-2026-08-11-at-11.09.56-AM-96x96.jpeg","categories_name":["International"],"featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cdn.deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/09\/Maria-Elvira-Salazar-justifica-reunion-de-Donald-Trump-con-Delcy-Rodriguez-en-Nueva-York-Es-un-mal-necesario.webp"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}