Venezuela's interim president Rodríguez visits India to sell oil

Delsey Rodriguez's bold move to support the US, visits India for oil sales

The presence of Machado, the opposition leader who only looked at Trump, was 'minimal'

(Mexico City = Yonhap News) Correspondent Song Gwang-ho = With the support of the United States, Venezuela's interim president Delcy Rodriguez is making bold moves. He will go to India on the 3rd (local time) to engage in oil sales diplomacy. This is his first visit to Asia since taking office as interim president.

According to Venezuelan daily El Universal and Reuters on the 2nd, Interim President Rodriguez will visit India from the 3rd to the 7th and hold a summit meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said at a press conference that day, "(The two leaders) will cover overall areas of India-Venezuela relations during the meeting and explore further ways to cooperate in the fields of energy, trade, investment, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, transportation and renewable energy."

Interim President Rodriguez will also meet with representatives of major energy industry groups in Mumbai, India's financial center. He attended the 'India Energy Week' conference in February 2025, when he was the oil minister.

This visit took place at a time when India, the world's third largest crude oil importer, was experiencing disruption in crude oil imports due to the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz in the aftermath of the US-Iran war. Venezuela has already emerged as a major alternative source of Middle Eastern crude oil. India imported 370,000 barrels per day in April and 427,000 barrels per day in May from Venezuela. It purchased the second largest amount of Venezuelan crude oil after the United States.

Rodriguez, who was removed from the U.S. Treasury Department's 'Special Sanctions Subjects' (SDN) list in early April, has recently visited The Hague, Netherlands, risking his life to win the territorial dispute with Guyana, and is continuing his unstoppable actions by actively engaging in oil diplomacy.

On the other hand, opposition leader and last year's Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado, unlike Rodriguez, has not been able to make her presence known.

He tried to gain the trust of the United States by transferring Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to the United States last January and transferring his Nobel Prize medal to President Trump. However, rather than taking power in Venezuela, he is still unable to return to his home country and escape from the 'barbaric situation'.

Although President Trump praised the transfer of the medal, he did not support Machado or the Venezuelan opposition taking power, and was reportedly skeptical about whether Machado could lead Venezuela.

However, even in this situation, Machado still does not stop ‘looking at America’. At a press conference held in Oslo, Norway the day before, he emphasized that he was "keeping pace" with the United States' goals for his country after Maduro's ouster.