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In her first speech as Venezuela\u2019s interim leader, Delcy Rodr\u00edguez lambasted the US and pledged fealty to Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a>. But the Trump administration has made a cold calculation: she will bow to Washington.<\/p>\n Rodr\u00edguez is a political veteran who served as Maduro\u2019s vice-president and oil minister and defended the regime against accusations of terrorism, drug-running and election-stealing, yet for now she is Donald Trump\u2019s favoured option to lead Venezuela<\/a>. \u201cShe\u2019s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n The US president has not ruled out deploying ground troops but appears to want to \u201crun\u201d Venezuela through Rodr\u00edguez, who finds herself in charge of a regime shocked and demoralised by the abduction of Maduro yet still in power.<\/p>\n The 56-year-old former labour lawyer struck a defiant tone in her televised speech on Saturday night. She condemned the abduction of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and demanded their return.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat is being done to Venezuela is an atrocity that violates international law. History and justice will make the extremists who promoted this armed aggression pay,\u201d she said. \u201cThere is only one president in Venezuela and his name is Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.\u201d<\/p>\n In a crisis that blends political theatre, military power<\/a> and economic calculation, the defiance may have been to some extent performative \u2013 a sop to the Bolivarian revolution\u2019s humiliated loyalists, especially those in the armed forces, while Rodr\u00edguez consolidates her position.<\/p>\n To stay in power \u2013 assuming that is her goal \u2013 she must accommodate US demands while shoring up an authoritarian regime that is despised by many Venezuelans<\/a>. One wrong step could trigger an internal putsch, a street uprising or another blast of US firepower.<\/p>\n