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Uncertainty gripped Venezuela on Saturday as people scrambled to understand who was in charge of the South American country after a U.S. military operation\u00a0captured President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat will happen tomorrow? What will happen in the next hour? Nobody knows,\u201d Caracas resident Juan Pablo Petrone said.<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump delivered a shocking pick for who would take control: The United States, perhaps in coordination with one of Maduro\u2019s most trusted aides.<\/p>\n
Delcy Rodr\u00edguez has served as Maduro\u2019s vice president since 2018, overseeing much of Venezuela\u2019s oil-dependent economy as well as its\u00a0feared intelligence service. But she is someone the Trump administration\u00a0apparently is willing to work with, at least for now.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again,\u201d Trump told reporters of Rodr\u00edguez, who faced U.S. sanctions during Trump\u2019s first administration for her role in undermining Venezuelan democracy.<\/p>\n
Long lines wound through supermarkets and outside gas stations as Venezuelans long used to crises stocked up once again. Small pro-government rallies broke out in parts of Caracas, but most streets remained empty in the nation of 29 million people.<\/p>\n
In a major snub, Trump said opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who was\u00a0awarded last year\u2019s Nobel Peace Prize, didn\u2019t have the support to run the country.<\/p>\n
Trump said Rodr\u00edguez had a long conversation with Secretary of State Marco Rubio in which Trump claimed she said, \u201c\u2018We\u2019ll do whatever you need.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think she was quite gracious,\u201d Trump added. \u201cWe can\u2019t take a chance that somebody else takes over Venezuela that doesn\u2019t have the good of the Venezuelan people in mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rodr\u00edguez tried to project strength and unity among the ruling party\u2019s many factions, downplaying any hint of betrayal. In remarks on state TV, she demanded the immediate release of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and denounced the U.S. operation as a flagrant violation of the United Nations charter.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is only one president in this country, and his name is Nicol\u00e1s Maduro,\u201d Rodr\u00edguez said, surrounded by top civilian officials and military commanders.<\/p>\n
There was no immediate sign that the U.S. was running Venezuela.<\/p>\n
Trump indicated that Rodr\u00edguez had been sworn in already as president of Venezuela, per the transfer of power outlined in the constitution. However, state television has not broadcast any swearing-in ceremony.<\/p>\n
In her televised address, Rodr\u00edguez did not declare herself acting president or mention a political transition. A ticker at the bottom of the screen identified her as the vice president. She gave no sign that she would be cooperating with the U.S.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is being done to Venezuela is an atrocity that violates international law,\u201d she said. \u201cHistory and justice will make the extremists who promoted this armed aggression pay.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Venezuelan constitution also says a new election must be called within a month in the event of the president\u2019s absence. But experts have been debating whether the succession scenario would apply here, given the government\u2019s\u00a0lack of popular legitimacy\u00a0and the\u00a0extraordinary U.S. military intervention.<\/p>\n
Venezuelan military officials were quick to project defiance in video messages.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have attacked us but will not break us,\u201d said Defense Minister Gen. Vladimir Padrino L\u00f3pez, dressed in fatigues.<\/p>\n
Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello appeared on state TV in a helmet and flak jacket, urging Venezuelans to \u201ctrust in the political leadership and military\u201d and \u201cget out on the streets\u201d to defend the country\u2019s sovereignty.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese rats attacked and they will regret what they did,\u201d he said of the U.S.<\/p>\n
Caracas residents like Yanire Lucas were left picking up shattered glass and other debris after an early-morning explosion in a military base next to her house.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is happening is unprecedented,\u201d Lucas said, adding that her family is scared to leave home. \u201cWe\u2019re still on edge, and now we\u2019re uncertain about what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
A lawyer educated in Britain and France, Rodr\u00edguez has a long history of representing the revolution started by the\u00a0late Hugo Ch\u00e1vez\u00a0on the world stage.<\/p>\n
She and her brother, Jorge Rodr\u00edguez, head of the\u00a0Maduro-controlled National Assembly, have strong leftist credentials born from tragedy. Their father was a socialist leader who died in police custody in the 1970s, a crime that shook many activists of the era, including a young Maduro.<\/p>\n
Unlike many in Maduro\u2019s inner circle, the Rodr\u00edguez siblings have avoided criminal indictment in the U.S. Delcy Rodr\u00edguez has developed strong ties with Republicans in the oil industry and on Wall Street who balked at the notion of U.S.-led regime change.<\/p>\n
Among her past interlocutors was Blackwater founder Erik Prince and, more recently, Richard Grenell, a Trump special envoy who tried to negotiate a deal with Maduro for greater U.S. influence in Venezuela.<\/p>\n
Fluent in English, Rodr\u00edguez is sometimes portrayed as a well-educated moderate in contrast to the military hardliners who took up arms with Ch\u00e1vez against Venezuela\u2019s democratically elected president in the 1990s.<\/p>\n
Many of them, especially Cabello, are wanted in the U.S. on drug trafficking charges and stand accused of serious human rights abuses. But they continue to hold sway over the armed forces, the traditional arbiter of political disputes in Venezuela.<\/p>\n
That presents major challenges to Rodr\u00edguez asserting authority. But experts say that Venezuela\u2019s power brokers have long had a habit of closing ranks behind their leaders.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese leaders have all seen the value of staying united. Cabello has always taken a second seat or third seat, knowing that his fate is tied up with Maduro\u2019s, and now he very well might do that again,\u201d said David Smilde, a sociology professor at Tulane University who has conducted research into Venezuela\u2019s political dynamics over the past three decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot depends on what happened last night, which officials were taken out, what the state of the military looks like now,\u201d Smilde said. \u201cIf it doesn\u2019t have much firepower anymore, they\u2019re more vulnerable and diminished and it will be easier for her to gain control.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shortly before Trump\u2019s press conference, Machado, the opposition leader, called on her ally\u00a0Edmundo Gonz\u00e1lez\u00a0\u2014 a retired diplomat widely considered to have won the\u00a0country\u2019s disputed 2024 presidential election\u00a0\u2014 to \u201cimmediately assume his constitutional mandate and be recognized as commander-in-chief.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an triumphant statement, Machado promised that her movement would \u201crestore order, free\u00a0political prisoners, build an exceptional country and bring our children back home.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cToday we are prepared to assert our mandate and take power.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked about Machado, Trump was blunt: \u201cI think it would be very tough for (Machado) to be the leader,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe doesn\u2019t have the support or respect within the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Venezuelans expressed shock, with many speculating on social media that Trump had mixed up the two women\u2019s names. Machado has not responded to Trump\u2019s remarks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
#Maduros #deputy #demands #release #U.S #arrest #Venezuelans #whos #charge<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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