Under U.S. Watch, Venezuela Grapples With Tensions Over Democracy

The two combatant politicians shook hands on a stage at a hotel in Caracas after signing an accord. It was a sign that they were willing, for now at least, to keep talking about finding common ground for Venezuela.

Their aides and supporters surrounding them clapped, encouraging the notion that the authoritarian state might move toward democracy — in months or years from now, and under the watch of the country’s new chief authority, the United States.

No one addressed the central questions looming over the talks: Are President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and the leaders in Caracas who now answer to them, ready to commit to a timeline that would result in elections?

And when should they take place?

One of the politicians on the stage, Jorge Rodríguez, in glasses and a gray sports jacket, serves as a top official in the government formerly led by Nicolás Maduro, who was seized in January in a U.S. military assault that killed scores of people.

Mr. Trump now supports that government, lavishing praise on its new leader, Delcy Rodríguez, long a commanding figure in the apparatus of repression under Mr. Maduro, who is imprisoned in New York.

The other politician onstage, Dinorah Figuera, standing next to the Venezuelan flag in an electric-blue suit, returned from exile in Spain to represent opposition groups in the negotiations over what American officials call a gradual political transition. She and Mr. Rodríguez had just spent a week doing their third round of talks, ending with the signing ceremony and news conference on Wednesday.

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