Rodríguez referred to AN’s discussion of the amnesty law – whose procedural process is ongoing – for political prisoners incarcerated since 1999, when Schmitt asked him about opposition leader María Corina Machado: “Allow me not to speak of a single name, because there are many actors abroad who must be included in the conversation. (…) Through this amnesty law, we are promoting that all sectors of the opposition abroad comply with the law and can return to the country”.
The conversation was broadcast with English dubbing in the responses of Jorge Rodríguez, whose interventions in Spanish cannot be heard in full.
Rodríguez and Schmitt also spoke about the oil industry, which the Chavista government is opening to foreign investment, mainly North Americans.
The President of the Assembly acknowledged that, economically, Venezuela went through “difficulties under the blockade” imposed by the United States and that the Caracas government “made some mistakes”, but that at this moment a “golden opportunity” is opening up to “advance and promote health, education and culture through a free market economy”.
“We have a great possibility of working and, as Trump said, there is a lot to do and What we are looking for is to convert this oil into hospitals, schools, things for the people of Venezuela”, explained the Chavista leader.
Regarding his relationship with the Trump Administration, Rodríguez acknowledged that “in the last 33 days things have moved very quickly, it was very intense”, but that there is an opportunity to build a relationship of “mutual benefit”: “We have a bright future ahead of us”, he added.
Since the capture of Maduro and the inauguration of Delcy Rodríguez as interim president, Venezuela has reformed the hydrocarbons law to allow American investment, returned to selling oil through the economic tutelage of the United States, started a process of releasing hundreds of political prisoners and is debating a broad amnesty law aimed at “reconciliation” in the country.
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