Rubio Backs Figuera Before New Venezuela Transition Talks
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Venezuelan opposition leader Dinorah Figuera at the State Department on Friday, pledging that her delegation’s talks with acting President Delcy Rodríguez’s government have “the support of the highest levels of the U.S. government.”
Rubio said the goal is a lasting democracy and not just elections, while Figuera called the dialogue “the way and the roadmap for elections,” though neither offered a date for a vote.
With the next round of talks set for October 14 and focused on renewing the Supreme Court, the process faces questions over María Corina Machado’s absence from the table and how credible the transition will be without her.
Ex-Magistrate Says Maduro Regime Coerced Machado Ban; Rodríguez Declares Start Of Christmas
CARACAS — Former Venezuelan Supreme Court magistrate Bárbara César Siero says she was coerced into signing the 2024 ruling that kept opposition leader María Corina Machado off the presidential ballot, after intelligence agents detained her two brothers and a sister-in-law the same day Machado’s defense sought a review.
Machado’s party and other opposition figures have demanded an investigation and the immediate lifting of the ban, while the allegation, which has not been independently verified, lands as the government and part of the opposition negotiate a renewal of the court, with talks resuming October 14.
Separately, acting President Delcy Rodríguez announced that Christmas will begin Nov. 1, continuing a practice Nicolás Maduro used several times that officials defend as a boost to the economy and morale and critics see as an attempt to project optimism amid a deep crisis.
U.S. Seizes Fuel Bound for Cuba as Talks Remain Unclear
The U.S. announced two fuel seizures aimed at Cuba within a week: the tanker Grace, boarded in the Caribbean on September 5 and escorted to Mexico, and 90 shipments worth about $2.8 million held at Port Everglades and Houston and addressed to a Cuban company sanctioned in July.
Washington says talks with Havana are ongoing, while Cuba’s diplomats say there are contacts but no formal negotiation and that changes to the island’s political system are a “red line.”
Meanwhile the fuel blockade that tightened after Maduro’s ouster in January, now escalates power outages as the regime in Havana clings to last breath of power.
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