Just hours after U.S. forces attacked Venezuela and captured President Nicolás Maduro on Saturday morning, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez emerged as the country’s de facto leader.
Rodríguez, who has served in the position since 2018, takes over following months of U.S. military pressure against the country to oust Maduro, who was seized in Caracas along with his wife, Cilia Flores, and transported to New York to face drug trafficking charges.
President Donald Trump said that the U.S. would “run the country” until a “proper and judicious transition” of power took place in Venezuela, without providing further details.
Read more: How the World Is Reacting to the U.S. Capture of Nicolas Maduro
To the surprise of many in the Venezuelan diaspora, Trump brushed aside any suggestion that 58-year-old opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado would take over, saying she lacked support.
Instead, at a news conference on Saturday, Trump named Rodríguez as the most likely successor, saying she had spoken with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and agreed to cooperate with the U.S. role in Venezuela.
“She, I think, was quite gracious, but she really doesn’t have a choice,” Trump said. “She is essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again. Very simple.”
Rodríguez has demanded proof that Maduro and Flores are alive and strongly denied Trump’s comments in public statements on Saturday.
“We demand the immediate liberation of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. The only president of Venezuela is President Nicolás Maduro,” Rodríguez said on state television flanked by senior officials. “Never again will we be slaves, never again will we be a colony of any empire. We’re ready to defend Venezuela.”
For now, it appears that many of Maduro’s top aides remain serving alongside Rodríguez, who was notably joined on Saturday by her brother, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello,…
