By Marianna Parraga
NEW YORK, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Venezuela's interim President Delcy Rodriguez arrived in New York this week for the UN General Assembly seeking business deals on debt, energy and mining, to demonstrate the once sanctioned country was open for business again after US forces removed her predecessor in January.
She pledged in her speech before the UN that the South American OPEC member would hold elections as part of a transition to "full democracy." She left with photographs of herself
alongside US President Donald Trump, but obtained no concrete agreements.
It was her first visit to the US since American forces captured then-President Nicolas Maduro in a January raid. It demonstrated Washington's deep control over her administration and showed Venezuela's need for new alliances to align with Trump's aspirations, analysts said.
"Rodriguez enjoyed a week of high visibility. Yet, when we make a list of concrete results, the outcome is modest. Where are the disbursements, the reconstruction package or the business deals? They did not materialize on the scale that would have allowed New York to be portrayed as Venezuela's great financial comeback," said Washington-based analyst Antonio De La Cruz.
"To the victor belong the spoils," Trump said in a Tuesday address to the assembly as Rodriguez listened, reminding her that the US stood ready to use its "unmatched military might."
Trump did not mention Rodriguez by name in his speech, and no readout was published on his brief "pull-aside" meeting with her. Leftist leaders from other nations who once backed Maduro kept their distance, while Venezuelans living in the US protested outside the UN with signs depicting Rodriguez in a jail-style orange jumpsuit.
De La Cruz said Trump showed Washington is shaping the new Venezuelan landscape, while Rodriguez demonstrated she is the key interlocutor. "But she now bears an additional consequence: she will have to explain when Venezuelans will actually vote."
For nine months, Rodriguez had avoided giving signals about an election, while US officials kept expectations at bay by saying it would take time to materialize. Analysts and Venezuelan opposition parties now say the clock is ticking to set a date, while experts estimate it will take at least 12 months to appoint reliable authorities and organize the voting.
The White House and Venezuela's information and foreign affairs ministries did not reply to requests for comment about a possible election and details of the bilateral talks.
MUCH NOISE, NO DEALS
Talks with US officials, multilateral lenders, allied governments and energy and mining companies were expected to produce signed agreements, even if preliminary, sources had said ahead of the Venezuelan delegation's trip. As of Saturday, none had been announced.
The head of the Inter-American Development Bank said the multilateral was working to secure approval for a $2.5 billion bridge loan for Venezuela. But some members of the IDB board oppose making the loan, Reuters reported on Tuesday.
Inside the UN, the Venezuelans were largely on their own. The Cuban delegation, once the South American nation's closest ally, walked out of the hall when Trump's speech turned to Cuba, while Rodriguez stayed as he called Maduro an "outlaw dictator." Officials from Caracas and Havana avoided each other, sources said.
When Rodriguez crossed the floor to greet Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, he awkwardly finished a phone call before standing to receive her. Sanchez later described the greeting as "normal."
Meanwhile, a source told Reuters that the Russian delegation sought out a meeting with Foreign Minister Felix Plasencia to discuss the country's stakes in oil projects in Venezuela. There have been reports that ExxonMobil has had negotiations for a return into the large Petromonagas development, partially owned by Russia's state firm Roszarubezhneft.
Russia's foreign ministry, its mission to the UN in New York and its embassy in Caracas did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the region's most prominent leftist leader, told CNN that the US treats Rodriguez as if it were her boss and that, in her place, he would call elections.
Outside, more than 50 protesters carried signs reading "New Face, Same Regime" and chanted that Rodriguez should join Maduro in the Brooklyn jail where he is being held pending trial.
Following Rodriguez's meeting with Trump, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the two discussed restructuring Venezuela's sovereign debt and that Washington pressed for political change, both hard topics for her administration. "For this project to be successful, it culminates in a free and fair election," Rubio said.
While Rodriguez visited the US, media reports said Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who could be a strong candidate in an eventual election, was again prevented from returning to her country from Panama.
Nicmer Evans, political analyst and former supporter of late leftist President Hugo Chavez, theorized on X that Rodriguez had allowed herself to be "doubly humiliated" in exchange for Trump withholding support to Machado.
"There will be elections, but when the United States sees fit," Evans wrote.
(Reporting by Marianna Parraga, with additional reporting from Jarrett Renshaw in Washington and Vivian Sequera in Caracas; editing by Nathan Crooks and David Gregorio)
