US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday that Venezuela's electoral infrastructure was designed to rig elections and so must be quickly replaced before a valid election can be held, Reuters reported from Washington. Rubio spoke to reporters by phone a day after opposition leader Maria Corina Machado returned to Venezuela for the first time since the US captured the country's then-president Nicolas Maduro in January and took him to New York for trial.

Source: Reuters (Washington)

The US believes talks currently underway between the interim government in Caracas and opposition politicians are expected to see a new supreme judicial tribunal in place by the end of this year and a new electoral council shortly thereafter, a senior US State Department official said earlier, according to Reuters. “I think we're making real progress in that regard,” said Rubio, who has acted as President Donald Trump's point person on Venezuela. “But if anybody tries to derail that process, they're doing a great harm to Venezuela.”

Source: Reuters (Washington)

In Caracas the same day, acting President Delcy Rodriguez said she hoped negotiations with a faction of the opposition would offer space for all voices to be heard, Reuters reported from Caracas. “I hope the dialogue continues to provide a space for political participation, and that those who have harmed Venezuela, those who called for sanctions and external aggression, feel some remorse and regret,” she said during a visit to a military hospital. “I hope both the dialogue and the program for democratic coexistence and peace can provide a space where all voices can be heard, where voices seeking the good of the country can be heard.”

Source: Reuters (Caracas)

The Caracas report confirmed the same negotiating track Rubio described: the talks, which have continued this month, would remake the electoral council and the top court ahead of eventual elections, Reuters reported. That is the institutional change Washington says must come first — a new electoral council and a new supreme judicial tribunal — before any nationwide vote it would recognise as valid.

Source: Reuters (Caracas)

Rubio stopped short of giving a target date for elections, Reuters reported. Machado has said elections should be held by mid-2027, though Trump has previously said he did not believe Venezuela was ready for a nationwide vote. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who was prevented from challenging Maduro for the presidency in 2024, had been out of the country for 10 months and spent the previous year in hiding following the disputed election.

Source: Reuters (Washington)

Machado's return after several failed attempts risks straining her ties with Trump's administration, both Reuters reports noted: Washington has said she has every right to be in Venezuela, but has praised Rodriguez and supports a negotiation process between the Rodriguez government and opposition groups that does not include Machado's Vente Venezuela movement.

Source: Reuters (Washington and Caracas)