CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan acting President Delcy Rodríguez on Wednesday asked public and private sector workers, whose wages have long not allowed them to afford basic necessities, for patience as her government works to improve the country’s economy.
Rodríguez, in a nationally televised address to the nation, promised workers a wage increase on May 1. She did not disclose the amount but explained it would be done in a way meant to avoid the inflationary spike that followed the last minimum wage increase.
“This increase, as we have indicated, will be a responsible increase,” Rodríguez said. “Likewise in the near future, as Venezuela enjoys more resources that allow for the sustainability of salary improvements and workers’ income, we will continue moving forward on this path.”
Many public sector workers survive on roughly $160 per month, while the average private sector employee earned about $237 last year. Venezuela’s monthly minimum wage of 130 bolivars, or $0.27, has not increased since 2022, putting it well below the United Nations’ measure of extreme poverty of $3 a day.
The International Monetary Fund estimates Venezuela’s inflation rate is a staggering 682%, the highest of any country for which it has data. The country’s central bank last month released inflation figures for the first time since November 2024, showing the annual rate in 2025 soared to 475% from 48% the year before.
That has sent the cost of food beyond what many can afford, with independent economists estimating that a family's basic basket of goods exceeds $500 a month.
Rodríguez's address to the nation came a day before workers are expected to demonstrate in Venezuela's capital, Caracas, to demand a wage increase. She told viewers that change will not happen overnight and asked them as well as employers across industries to work together and with her government “to begin a sustained recovery and maintain this path of growth.”
“It must be done with prudence, with awareness, with patience, but with a profound spirit of optimism about what the future holds for Venezuela,” Rodríguez said.
Rodríguez has repeatedly promised economic improvements since she was sworn in following the U.S. capture of then-President Nicolás Maduro in January. Maduro's entire presidency was marked by crisis that pushed millions into poverty and drove more than 7.7 million people to leave Venezuela.
The Trump administration stunned Venezuelans by choosing to work with Rodríguez, instead of the country’s political opposition, after Maduro's ouster. She has since led cooperation with the U.S. administration’s phased plan to end Venezuela’s complex crisis, pitching her oil-rich nation to international investors and opening its energy sector to private capital and international arbitration.
FILE - Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodriguez smiles during a meeting with a delegation led by U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright at Miraflores Palace in Caracas, Venezuela, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — An Army veteran has been charged with sharing classified information about an elite commando unit with a journalist, which one official said put the country, members of the U.S. military and the nation's allies at risk.
Courtney Williams, 40, of Wagram, North Carolina, is accused of violating federal law, as well as multiple nondisclosure agreements by sharing details of her work with a “special military unit” at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
"Anyone divulging information they vowed to protect to a reporter for publication is reckless, self-serving and damages our nation’s security,” Reid Davis, the FBI special agent in charge in North Carolina, said in a U.S. Justice Department news release.
Williams "swore an oath to safeguard our nation’s secrets as an employee supporting a Special Military Unit of the Army, but she allegedly betrayed that oath by sharing classified information with a media outlet and putting our nation, our warfighters, and our allies at risk,” Roman Rozhavsky, an assistant director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence and Espionage Division, said in the statement.
Williams, who is specifically charged with violating a provision of the Espionage Act, appeared Wednesday in Raleigh federal court, where a magistrate judge unsealed the case against her, initially filed late last week, according to online court records. She was ordered held by the U.S. Marshals Service pending hearings set for early next week.
Court records didn’t immediately name Williams’ lawyer. A man who answered a phone and identified himself as a family member of Williams declined to comment on the charges Wednesday.
Although the reporter and unit are not named in the court filings, dates and details match an article and book about the Army’s secretive Delta Force written by Seth Harp.
Williams was the focus of a 2025 Politico article with the headline: “My Life Became a Living Hell: One Woman’s Career in Delta Force, the Army’s Most Elite Unit.” It coincided with the release of Harp’s book, “The Fort Bragg Cartel,” which alleges sexual harassment and discrimination.
In a statement published by WRAL-TV, Harp called Williams “a brave whistleblower and truth-teller.”
“Former Delta Force operators disclose `national defense information’ on podcasts and YouTube shows every day, but the government is going after Courtney for the sole reason that she exposed sexual harassment and gender discrimination in the unit,” Harp's statement read. “This is a vindictive act of retaliation, plain and simple.”
According to an FBI affidavit attached to the complaint, Williams was cleared as a defense contractor in April 2010 and became a Department of Defense employee in November 2010.
She performed duties within the special military unit as an operational support technician responsible for "Tactics, Techniques and Procedures" used in preparation for and during "sensitive missions,” Special Agent Jocelyn Fox wrote in the affidavit.
According to Fox, Williams’ access to classified information was suspended “based on an internal investigation.” Fox said Williams was debriefed in September 2015 and signed a nondisclosure agreement.
The government alleges that Williams had been in contact with the unnamed journalist between 2022 and 2025.
“During this period, Williams and the Journalist had over 10 hours of telephone calls and exchanged more than 180 messages,” the news release said.
Fox cited a text between the two she said occurred on or about the day the book and article were published.
“Other than a few factual errors, I would definitely have been concerned with the amount of classified information being disclosed,” Williams' text read, according to the affidavit. “I thought things I was telling you so you could have a better general understanding of how the (SMU) was set up or operated would not be published and it feels like an entire TTP (Tactics, Techniques and Procedures) was sent out in my name giving them a chance to legally persecute me.”
Fox also cited an alleged exchange between Williams and her mother.
”`I might actually get arrested, and I don’t even get a free copy of the book,’” the affidavit read. “When her mother asked why she may be arrested, Williams responded `for disclosing classified information.’”
Fox wrote that the investigation so far has identified at least 10 batches of documents gathered that Williams intended to provide to the journalist.
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Associated Press writer Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.
FILE - A sign for Fort Bragg is seen, March 7, 2025, in Fort Bragg, N.C. (AP Photo/Chris Seward, File)
