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Madam President, thank you. Gracias por su tiempo. Welcome to Venezuela, Kristen. Thank you.
It's very beautiful here. We appreciate it. Thank you for having us. You met with the Energy Secretary today.
What was your biggest takeaway from that conversation? Well, first, it's a very special moment. It's the first time a Secretary of Energy of the United States comes to Venezuela. So first of all, we're very happy to have here the Secretary of Energy.
It's the first time that we had a Secretary of Energy from the United States come visit Venezuela. We have been discussing the future of the relationship and working together in building a productive relationship for both countries. And I'll ask you a question. I asked the Secretary.
Who is in charge here in Venezuela? Are you in charge or is President Trump in charge? Well, I can tell you, I am in charge of the presidency of Venezuela as it's stated clearly in the Constitution of Venezuela. And from the amount of work that I have, from how busy I am, I can tell you it's very, very hard work and we're doing it completely day by day.
And let me ask you a little bit about the relationship. President Trump has said that he told your administration, quote, we'll do whatever you need. That you told the administration that we'll do whatever you need. Are you taking direction from President Trump?
So I can tell you, I have had two phone calls with President Trump and many more with Secretary Rubio. We have, in every single phone call, have had very respectful conversations and we have kept a level, a high level of cooperation and respect so that we can develop a joint work. And I must really be grateful for this level of cooperation and what we're going to build together. Has he invited you to the United States?
Do you anticipate you'll be visiting the United States soon? Well, yes, I can say that I have been invited to the States and that we're contemplating coming there once we establish this cooperation and we can, you know, move forward with everything we're doing together. And obviously, President Nicolás Maduro is in the United States. He's being detained there.
Do you see Nicolás Maduro as the legitimate leader of Venezuela? So yes, I can tell you that President Nicolás Maduro is the legitimate president. I can, I will tell you this as a lawyer that I am. They are both, President Maduro and Celia Flores, the first lady, are both innocent.
We have, and I will refer right now to the DEA reports that have repeatedly stated that Venezuela is not irrelevant in the drug traffic towards the United States. We have also 27 reports from the United Nations stating that Venezuela is not a relevant country when it comes to drug trafficking towards the United States. We know that less than 5% of drugs go through the north of the Caribbean and that 70% come from the equator. We regret immensely the situation and I must say that I believe completely in the peace, in diplomacy of peace and the dialogue of, you know, diplomacy and political dialogue.
I do not believe that the diplomacy of the microphones should be used as a communicating channel. Secretary Wright was very clear. You talked about areas of agreement and areas of disagreement. The United States does not see President Maduro is the legitimate leader of Venezuela.
You say he is the legitimate leader of Venezuela. Does that in any way make it more difficult for you to work with the Trump administration, that difference in perspective? No, no, it's not difficult to do the work. That's why I said I'm not at all.
I don't find this a hard work to do. I truly, as I said before, I truly believe that diplomatic dialogue is the way forward. We believe that political, diplomatic and also the dialogue of energy is a channel that will crash all fake news. We know, and I know personally, that President Trump has also suffered about, you know, with regards to fake news.
We salute actually the fact that NBC is right here with us, you know, seeing and experiencing Venezuela and seeing what the reality of the country is. It has happened to us and we know foreigners who come to Venezuela who travel, move around the city and are surprised about the state of the city of the country of the development and this for us is very important. Do you support the way the United States is carrying out sales of Venezuelan oil and dispersing its proceeds? Do you support the plan that seems to be in place?
The sale of oil from Venezuela to the U.S. has been done exclusively and commercially through PDVSA. A través de canales de ventas como cualquier comprador que viene y compra el petróleo en Venezuela y de allí en adelante lo que se haga por ese petróleo ya no es propiedad de Venezuela. The oil prices have been established correctly through mechanisms and normal channels as it's done internationally and I can tell you that regarding the trade relationship in international terms and mechanisms is, you know, guaranteeing that the income is used in Venezuela correctly.
You can guarantee that the income will go to rebuilding Venezuela and helping the people of Venezuela? Absolutely. Lo primero es que te tengo que reafirmar que a pocos días de haber jurado como presidenta encargada de Venezuela So, absolutely, yes. I can tell you that a few days after I was sworn in as president I set up two sovereign funds.
The first fund is to guarantee the social protections for the people of Venezuela regarding health, education and such. And the second fund, the second sovereign fund will guarantee infrastructure, reality, electricity and also we have started a new app where people can log in and see exactly where the funds are going to and how they're being used. How do you respond to President Trump's accusations that Venezuela stole U.S. oil decades ago and what he's doing is taking it back?
No, I had said that there's disinformation about it. Venezuela is in a process of revising. So, no, I believe there's been a lot of disinformation. We are currently in a process of reviewing contracts and clarifying exactly who owes money to who, who owes money to PDVSA, who PDVSA owes money to, and we are currently doing that and going to do everything to clarify exactly the situation.
Let me ask you because you have a new petroleum law that basically tries to reverse the damage that was done by nationalizing the oil industry. Is that effectively an acknowledgement that nationalizing oil assets was a mistake? So, yeah, the thing is there's a lot of misconception about the law. We used to have and we established, you know, during the blockade we established what we call the anti-blockade law which establishes a very specific business model where the firms, the companies can, you know, can produce and can take the management and can trade in also.
This is the difference. And now we take this model to the new law. But it's a step away from nationalizing. No, it is not a step away from nationalizing because oil hydrocarbons are the property of the Venezuelan states.
So what Venezuela is doing is establishing new models of management where Venezuela can handle and manage ways of production and commercialization. So, let me clarify. What we have done is reform the law. We didn't put it up.
It's just been reformed. And it's reformed so that the dividends from the investments can have a better return. We established, we know that green fields require a bigger investment and their return is different. And if these fields cannot be treated in the same way as brown fields.
So I have said before, what we want to do is to go from being the country with the largest oil reserves and go to being a great producer of oil just like the United States which produces close to 13 million barrels a day and even as Saudi Arabia. So we want to produce great amounts of oil. Let me ask you about another big topic. That was an important addition.
Let me ask you about another big issue that I know has been discussed between you and the Trump administration which is the release of political prisoners. You have released several hundred but there are still more than 600 who haven't been released. When will all of the political prisoners be released? So this issue is not a topic we handle in the bilateral agenda currently.
This is a plan that we started in Venezuela in December of 2025. We have had since 1999 we've been dealing with political violence here in Venezuela and what we are doing is through the amnesty law is promoting the excarcelation of prisoners so that we can achieve the better coexistence and reconciliation. And do you commit to releasing political prisoners who have been wrongly detained? So I can tell you that right now we're amidst a process of deep evaluation of the judicial system right now.
A system that has despised the fact that people were burned alive due to the skin color that this judicial system kept the peace in Venezuela. Between 2014 and 2017 we experienced great, great violence in the street of Venezuela and that justice justice system with its achievements and its faults protected the peace of the Venezuelan state. And nevertheless there are things to be corrected and without a doubt we will correct them. So that's a commitment to release anyone who's wrongfully.
Absolutely. President Trump said in January the U.S. will be running Venezuela for much longer than here. He's made it clear the United States could play a role in Venezuela for years.
Are you comfortable with that? Would you support that? So that's why I was telling you that I do not agree with the diplomacy of the microphones. I have to say this is why we're very pleased to have welcomed today the Secretary of Energy and his entire delegation and all his technical teams so that we can work together and demonstrate what remains to be done.
We have found that Secretary Rice is very kind very respectful and very open to working with us and we want to make sure that with our work we can demonstrate to both sectors private and public in the U.S. in Venezuela that we can work together and that's what we're willing to do. Takes me to my next question a little bit more. Do you commit to holding free and fair elections here in Venezuela?
Absolutely. Elections are contemplated in the Constitution and to hold free and just elections in Venezuela it means also having a free of sanctions and also a country that is not undermined by international bullying and harassment by the international press. Secretary Rice said it is possible that there could be elections here in Venezuela by the end of this administration so within three years. Is that realistic?
Could there be elections here in Venezuela in three years? Yes, Venezuela is a country where we hold elections constantly. We have had over 30 elections and I don't know if you know there are some elections which are less known as communal elections where even projects are defined. But presidential?
Also, we will have elections in this country fair and free of course as stated in the Constitution and also we will need to have a political dialogue to make sure that these elections can take place. And I have to tell you this, the time frame for the elections will be marked and decided by the political dialogue in this country. We know that we will have elections where Venezuelans will feel completely identified with the elections in the process. Final question.
Maria Carina Machado says she wants to return to Venezuela. Will you make sure she can return here safely and even run for president if she wants to? Mira, sobre su vida. Nosotros no entendemos por qué muchas veces se hace...
So, with regards to her life we do not understand why there's such a fuss about it. With regards to her coming back to the country she will have to answer to Venezuela why she called upon an intervention a military intervention why she called upon sanctions to Venezuela and why she celebrated the actions that took place at the beginning of January. So you won't have her return? It is not something that is up to me.
Anything else you'd like to say, ma'am? Well, we'd like to thank you and thank you for coming here and also through NBC call upon international media to come and to see what's happening and to be truthful about the situation in Venezuela and what's going on here. We thank you for watching. And remember, stay updated on breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app or watch live on our YouTube channel.
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