Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar is deny­ing claims that her Gov­ern­ment is seek­ing regime change in Venezuela, but stopped short of say­ing whether she recog­nis­es Nicolás Maduro as the coun­try’s Pres­i­dent.

Speak­ing at the VIP lounge of Pi­ar­co In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port on Wednes­day evening, Per­sad-Bisses­sar re­ceived a bois­ter­ous wel­come from mem­bers of her Cab­i­net af­ter re­turn­ing from her first diplo­mat­ic mis­sion since win­ning the April 28 Gen­er­al Elec­tion.

Her trip in­clud­ed an ad­dress at the Unit­ed Na­tions Gen­er­al As­sem­bly in New York on Sep­tem­ber 22, fol­lowed by talks in Wash­ing­ton with US Sec­re­tary of State Mar­co Ru­bio.