Venezuela’s opposition leader María Corina Machado held private talks in the White House Friday as she struggles to retain her political voice in the face of the Trump administration’s growing support for her rival in Caracas, interim President Delcy Rodríguez.

The talks prompted dual narratives from people familiar with the discussions who were not authorized to speak publicly.

“This was a private and extensive meeting in which the next steps to advance the transition in Venezuela were discussed,” according to Machado’s spokesperson, adding that the meeting, Machado’s second in the White House, lasted two hours.

Trump and Machado reviewed details of the politician’s planned return to Venezuela, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was private. Machado has vowed to go home in the “next few weeks.”

A White House official said that Trump met with Machado as a courtesy and at her request, adding that Rodríguez is doing a great job.

Another person familiar with the talks said U.S. officials urged Machado to be patient as they work to stabilize the Venezuelan economy and put it on a path to recovery.

Machado and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio have talked about the need to steady Venezuela’s oil-based economy before convening elections that would transition the country to democracy. The differences lie in the timetable and how fast to go.

The meeting caps a week in which the U.S. administration and Venezuela’s interim authorities officially reestablished diplomatic relations. The thaw coincided with a visit to Caracas by U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to review mining cooperation between the two nations.

On Saturday, as Trump hosted a meeting of Latin American leaders, he praised Rodríguez.

“We’ve been working closely with the new president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, who’s doing a great job working with us,” Trump said at the event. “She’s doing a great job because she’s working with us. If she wasn’t working with us, I would not say she’s doing a great job.”

It was unclear whether Venezuela sent a representative to the meeting, which was held at one of Trump’s Florida properties.

The Trump administration is rapidly easing oil sanctions on Venezuela, promising to leverage recovering production and exports. Trump also noted that the U.S. formally recognized the Venezuelan government.

After U.S. forces captured Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro on Jan. 3, the Trump administration swiftly embraced Rodríguez, who had served as his longtime vice president and oil minister.

In January, Machado presented Trump with her Nobel Peace Prize medal, prompting the U.S. president to later describe her as a “true fighter for freedom” and a “world-class leader.”

The kudos quickly faded. Machado was notably absent from Trump’s State of the Union address on Feb. 24. Trump instead invited and spotlighted Enrique Márquez, a little-known, recently released moderate opposition figure.

Rodríguez has said Machado “must answer” to the Venezuelan people for previous calls for U.S. military intervention and the imposition of sanctions. When Machado left the country in December to collect the peace prize, Trump said he “wouldn’t be happy” if she were arrested upon her return.

Rodríguez has since been consolidating political control, abruptly relinquishing her previous anti-US socialist rhetoric in favor of political alignment with the Trump administration’s pro-investment agenda.

The new authorities have released hundreds of political prisoners, including Machado’s allies. That has prompted some opposition leaders and activists to emerge from hiding, and others in exile to return home.

Machado, in contrast, remains abroad. She plans to travel to Chile for the March 11 presidential inauguration of conservative ally José Antonio Kast, who campaigned in favor of expelling undocumented migrants, who are mostly from Venezuela.

(Patricia Laya and María Paula Mijares Torres contributed to this report.)

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