Rubio meets Venezuela's new foreign minister Oliver Blanco in Washington

A first formal meeting at the State Department

Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, received Oliver Blanco at the State Department in Washington on Monday, 2 November. El País describes it as the first formal face-to-face meeting between the two countries' foreign ministers since June 2016, when John Kerry met Delcy Rodríguez, then Nicolás Maduro's foreign minister, in Santo Domingo during the OAS General Assembly. The talks lasted 45 minutes. Afterwards the two men posed between the US and Venezuelan flags with serious expressions and without the customary handshake. Deutsche Welle reports that neither official answered reporters' questions.

Conflicting accounts of what was said

El País reports that Blanco spoke briefly as he left, telling reporters that the two countries have a successful diplomatic agenda despite past differences, and that it should help Venezuelans with economic recovery, democratic transformation and coexistence. He walked away from NTN24 reporters who asked about elections without answering. Deutsche Welle and Notícias ao Minuto, by contrast, report that no statement was issued. El País adds that the State Department made no comment after the meeting. Blanco also met Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, whose department controls the economic sanctions that still penalise Venezuela, and Under Secretary of Energy James Danly, according to El País.

Blanco's appointment and profile

Delcy Rodríguez named Blanco foreign minister on Thursday, 29 October, replacing Félix Plasencia, who moved to lead the presidency's international affairs office. El País says Blanco has no diplomatic career and is 34 years old, and calls him the only member of the cabinet who does not come from chavismo. El Mundo puts his age at 35, and says he was a youth leader in Acción Democrática and accompanied its secretary general, Henry Ramos Allup, when Ramos Allup presided over the National Assembly in 2016. According to El Mundo, Blanco had been number two in the ministry since February and had backed the visits to Caracas by envoys sent by the White House. On Friday, 30 October, he met John Barrett, the US chargé d'affaires in Caracas, according to Notícias ao Minuto.

Elections, Machado and the wider backdrop

Rodríguez said on Thursday, 29 October, that Venezuela will hold all the elections set out in its Constitution, but she did not give a date. Opposition leader María Corina Machado returned to Venezuela on 25 October after almost a year abroad, during which she repeatedly called for elections. Deutsche Welle describes her as a Nobel Peace Prize laureate. The US captured Nicolás Maduro in a military operation on 3 January, and Washington has since become Venezuela's main partner, according to El País. Notícias ao Minuto reports that the Trump administration, which struck a controversial oil deal with Caracas, supports a political roadmap to renew key institutions in the coming months. El Mundo reads the meeting as backing for the official leading a three-phase plan toward free elections.

What comes next

El Mundo expects Blanco to accompany Rodríguez at the XXX Ibero-American Summit, which opens on Wednesday, 4 November, in Madrid. El Mundo also notes that the meeting took place on the eve of the US elections. Rodríguez has not set a date for the Venezuelan elections she promised, and the sanctions that Treasury administers remain in place, per El País. The next test for Blanco's ministry will be whether his talks with Washington produce any movement on the electoral calendar.