BRAVE MAG

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela's acting PresidentDelcy Rodríguezused her first state of the union message on Thursday to advocate for opening the crucial state-run oil industry to more foreign investment following the Trump administration's pledge toseize controlof Venezuelan crude sales.

For the first time, Rodríguez laid out a vision forVenezuela's new political reality— one that challenges her government's most deeply rooted beliefs less than two weeks after the United States captured andtoppled former President Nicolás Maduro.

Under pressure from the U.S. to cooperate with its plans for reshaping Venezuela's sanctioned oil industry, she declared that a "new policy is being formed in Venezuela" and urged the nation's diplomats to tell foreign investors about it.

The Trump administration has said it plans to control future oil revenue to ensure it benefits the Venezuelan people. Rodríguez on Thursday painted a picture of money from the oil sales flowing into the national budget to bolster crisis-stricken health services and deteriorating infrastructure — much of which was constructed under Maduro's predecessor, Hugo Chávez, and neglected in recent years.

While Rodríguez criticized the U.S. capture of Maduro and referred to a "stain on our relations," she also promoted the resumption of diplomatic ties between the historic adversaries. Her succinct, 44-minute speech and largely mollifying tone marked a dramatic contrast to her predecessors' often daily, hourslong rants against U.S. imperialism.

The day before, she gave a 4-minute briefing to the media to say her government would continuereleasing prisonersdetained under Maduro.

"Let us not be afraid of diplomacy," Rodriguez said on Thursday.

But she also appeared to be threading a needle. A portrait of Maduro and his wife was displayed right next to Rodríguez as she spoke. She portrayed herself as defending Venezuela's national interests and sovereignty even as the country warmed up to the U.S.

"If one day, as acting president, I have to go to Washington, I will do so standing up, walking, not being dragged," she said. "I will go standing tall ... never crawling."

She spoke as Venezuelan opposition leaderMaría Corina Machadomet with U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington after being frozen out of the U.S. military intervention and subsequent discussions over Venezuela's political fate.

Machado, whose party is widely considered to havewon 2024 electionsdespite Maduro's claims of victory, said she presented her Nobel Peace Prize medal to Trump "as a recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom."

After a closed-door discussion with Trump, she greeted dozens of cheering supporters waiting for her near the gates, stopping to hug many of them.

"We can count on President Trump," she told them, prompting some to briefly chant "Thank you, Trump."

Machado did not elaborate on what she meant, and her role in Venezuela's political scene remains uncertain as Rodríguez's government has been effectively relieved of having to hold elections for the foreseeable future.

That's because when Venezuela's high court granted Rodríguez presidential powers on an acting basis, it cited a provision of the constitution that allows the vice president to take over for a renewable period of 90 days.

Machado's meeting with Trump received no coverage in Venezuela. State TV still pumps out a steady stream of pro-government images, including of the frequent state-orchestrated marches, where crowds of public employees chant pro-government slogans calling for Maduro's release and return.

Follow AP's coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean athttps://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — TheUnited Nationschief lashed out Thursday at countries that violate international law and called theconcentration of power and wealthby the world's richest 1% "morally indefensible."

At the start of his final year at the helm of the United Nations,Secretary-General Antonio Guterrestold the U.N. General Assembly that its 193 member nations are facing "a world marked by self-defeating geopolitical divides, brazen violations of international law, and wholesale cuts in development and humanitarian aid."

All these forces are shaking the foundations of global cooperation at a time when it is needed most, said Guterres, whose second five-year term ends on Dec. 31.

"Some seek to put international cooperation on deathwatch," the secretary-general said. "I can assure you: We will not give up."

Guterres has repeatedlycriticized Russia for violating the U.N. Charter, which requires that every country respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all nations, by invading Ukraine in February 2022. He also has criticized the United States for its military operation in Venezuela tocapture President Nicolás Maduroand itsdeadly attacks on boatsin the Caribbean and Pacific that the U.S. says are carrying drugs.

"When leaders run roughshod over international law — when they pick and choose which rules to follow — they are not only undermining global order, they are setting a perilous precedent," Guterres said.

The U.N. chief said people around the world are watching the erosion of international law and the consequences of impunity. He pointed to "the illegal use and threat of force; attacks on civilians, humanitarian workers and U.N. personnel; unconstitutional changes of government; the trampling of human rights; the silencing of dissent; the plundering of resources."

He also criticized countries that don't pay their U.N. dues on time — another jab at the Trump administration, which did not pay its mandatory dues to the U.N.'s budgets in 2025.

Guterres warned of the dangers of a concentration of power and wealth in the world's richest 1%, who hold 43% of global financial assets.

"Increasingly, we see a world where the ultra-wealthiest and the companies they control are calling the shots like never before — wielding outsized influence over economies, information and even the rules that govern us all," he said.

The longtime government contractor whose activity prompted the controversialsearch of a Washington Post reporter's homeacknowledged he mishandled classified information, prosecutors said, according to a court hearing transcript obtained by CNN.

Aurelio Perez-Lugones told federal investigators he was angry about "recent government activity," Assistant US Attorney Patricia McLane said during a detention hearing Monday.

"He admitted to federal officers that he mishandled classified information," McLane added.

President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that an alleged leaker of information about Venezuela was in custody, although the Justice Department has not said it was in connection to Venezuela in court filings.

Perez-Lugones, a former member of the US Navy, had long been a rule-follower until he intentionally put classified information on papers in a lunchbox in his car and in his home beginning in October of last year until last week, when he was searched, McLane said.

He was arrested and charged by criminal complaint with one count of unlawful retention of national defense information late last week. He currently remains behind bars but is challenging his ongoing detention and appeared in court Thursday. He hasn't been formally indicted and thus hasn't entered a plea in response to the allegations. CNN has reached out to his attorneys for comment on his alleged comments to federal agents.

Perez-Lugones' attorneys pushed back Thursday on the government's assertions that he needed to be locked up because he is in their view a threat to national security, arguing that the charges are over the narrow allegation that he retained classified documents and do not, at this time, include allegations that he shared any classified information.

"Indeed, there are no allegations that Mr. Perez-Lugones – during his decades-long career in positions requiring a security clearance – has ever inappropriately used information that he had knowledge of,"they wrote in court papers.

The criminal investigation into Perez-Lugones has raised significant questions around the Justice Department's reasoning for subsequently searching the Post reporter's home and seizing her electronics – a step rarely taken and widely criticized by both executive branch and congressional figures in past administrations.

The Justice Department said that Perez-Lugones could be motivated to continue leaking information out of his unhappiness with US policy.

"He has expressed exasperation for the current conditions in America," McLane said at Monday's hearing, according to the transcript.

"Even if the court restricted his use of electronics and cell phones, he could communicate the information stored in his head. And the defendant has demonstrated not just the ability, but the motive to do so," she added.

More details on why the Justice Department was prompted this week to search a Washington Post reporter's home and seize her personal laptop, work laptop, a Garmin watch and her cell phone, extreme steps that have alarmed press freedom advocates, are still not available.

But one influential First Amendment advocacy group, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, asked a federal judge to unseal the Justice Department's applications to search the home of the reporter, Hannah Natanson.

"The public is therefore left with no means to understand the government's basis for seeking (and a federal court's basis for approving) a search with dramatic implications for a free press and the constitutional rights of journalists," the Reporters Committee's lawyerswrote in their filing late Wednesday.

Natanson hasn't been charged with any crime and the Washington Post has defended her reporting.

Trump administration officials, including the attorney general and FBI director, have condemned the press for obtaining national security information, setting off further alarm bells throughout First Amendment watchdogs and news organizations.

CNN's Brian Stelter contributed to this report.

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