Welcome to the News Hour.

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Karina Machado told an audience in Washington, D.C. today

that she's confident democracy will return to her nation.

Almost two weeks after the U.S. arrest of now former President Nicolas Maduro,

Machado revealed little of her own plans.

As Nick Schiffrin reports, that hasn't stopped the Trump White House from engaging with the rest of the Maduro regime it left in place.

Today, the first image of what U.S. officials billed as a historic meeting. CIA director John Ratcliffe, greeting interim Venezuelan president, Delci Rodriguez.

That handshake, and Ratcliffe's trip

to Caracas would have been unthinkable just weeks ago.

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Especially to visit U.S. sanctioned nationalist politician Rodriguez, handpicked successor

to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

But a U.S. official says the meeting was a sign of an improved U.S. Venezuela relationship.

And that Venezuela must block drug trafficking and provide the U.S. economic opportunities.

This has nothing to do with a tension or decision between Delzi Rodriguez and myself.

But in Washington today, opposition leader Maria Karina Machado urged the U.S. to proceed

with caution.

Delsi Rodriguez, yes, she's a communist.

She's the main ally and representation of the Russian regime, the

Chinese and the Iranians. But that's not the Venezuelan people and that's not the armed

forces. Last night, Machado gifted president her Nobel Peace Prize. Only 150 have ever been

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