As for Ms. Rodriguez, the president did speak
with her directly this week, as you know,
he revealed that to all of you yesterday, um
, and Secretary Rubio and the administration have been in
constant communication, uh, with Ms. Rodriguez and
other members of the interim government in Venezuela. Uh
, they have been extremely cooperative. Um, they
have thus far met all of the demands and requests
of the United States and of the president, uh
, and I think you have all seen that.
Play out. We obviously had a$500 million energy
deal that was struck in large part because of the
cooperation from Ms. Rodriguez. Venezuela and Ms.
Rodriguez have also confirmed that they will be releasing political
prisoners from Venezuela. There were 5 Americans who were
recently released this week as well, so the president
likes what he's seeing and will expect that cooperation to
continue. Is it still the president's assessment that it
would be very hard? For Ms. Machado to
leave Venezuela because he says she lacks the respect and
support in that country, and will he raise that
with her today? I think the president's assessment that
you just pointed out was based on realities on the
ground. It was a realistic assessment based on what
the president was reading and hearing from his advisers and
national security team, and at this moment in time
, his opinion on that matter has not changed.