MEXICO CITY (AP) \u2014 As uncertainty simmers in Venezuela, interim President Delcy Rodr\u00edguez has taken the place of her ally President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, captured by the United States in a nighttime military operation, and offered \u201cto collaborate\u201d with the Trump administration in what could be a seismi.<\/b>
\nAs uncertainty simmers in Venezuela, interim President Delcy Rodr\u00edguez has taken the place of her ally President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, captured by the United States in a nighttime military operation, and offered \u201cto collaborate\u201d with the Trump administration in what could be a seismic shift in relations between the adversary governments.
Rodr\u00edguez served as Maduro’s vice president since 2018, overseeing much of Venezuela\u2019s oil-dependent economy and its feared intelligence service, and was next in the presidential line of succession.
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She’s part of a band of senior officials in Maduro’s administration that now appears to control Venezuela, even as U.S. President Donald Trump and other officials say they will pressure the government to fall in line with its vision for the oil-rich nation.
On Saturday, Venezuela\u2019s high court ordered her to assume the role of interim president, and the leader was backed by Venezuela\u2019s military.
Rodr\u00edguez, a 56-year-old lawyer and politician has had a lengthy career representing the revolution started by the late Hugo Ch\u00e1vez on the world stage. It’s been unclear if the leader would warm up to the Trump administration or follow the same adversarial line as her predecessor.
Her rise to become interim leader of the South American country came as a surprise on Saturday morning, when Trump announced that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had been in communication with Rodr\u00edguez and that the Venezuelan leader was \u201cgracious\u201d and would work with the American government. Rubio said Rodr\u00edguez was someone the administration could work with, unlike Maduro.
But in a televised address, Rodr\u00edguez gave no indication that she would cooperate with Trump, referring to his government as \u201cextremists“ and maintaining that Maduro was Venezuela’s rightful leader.
\u201cWhat is being done to Venezuela is an atrocity that violates international law,\u201d Rodr\u00edguez said, surrounded by high-ranking civilian officials and military leaders.
Trump warned on Sunday, if Rodr\u00edguez didn’t fall in line, \u201cshe is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro.\u201d He added that he wanted her to provide \u201ctotal access,\u201d from oil facilities to basic infrastructure like roads, so they can be rebuilt.
Trump\u2019s comments also followed Rubio having asserted in TV interviews on Sunday that he didn\u2019t see Rodr\u00edguez and her government as \u201clegitimate\u201d because he said the country never held free and fair elections.
On Sunday, in statements posted to her Instagram, she took a major shift in tone in a conciliatory message where she said she hoped to build \u201crespectful relations\u201d with Trump.
\u201cWe invite the US government to collaborate with us on an agenda of cooperation oriented towards shared development within the framework of international law to strengthen lasting community coexistence,\u201d she wrote.
A lawyer educated in Britain and France, the interim president and her brother, Jorge Rodr\u00edguez, head of the Maduro-controlled National Assembly, have sterling leftist credentials born from tragedy. Their father was a socialist leader who was arrested for his involvement in the kidnapping of American business owner William Niehous in 1976, and later died in police custody.
Unlike many in Maduro\u2019s inner circle, the Rodr\u00edguez siblings have avoided criminal indictment in the U.S., though the interim president did face U.S. sanctions during Trump’s first term for her role in undermining Venezuelan democracy.
Rodr\u00edguez held a number of lower-level positions under Ch\u00e1vez’s government, but gained prominence working under Maduro to the point of being seen as his successor. She served the economic minister, foreign affairs minister, petroleum minister and others help stabilize Venezuela’s endemically crisis-stricken economy after years of rampant inflation and turmoil.
Rodr\u00edguez developed strong ties with Republicans in the oil industry and on Wall Street who balked at the notion of U.S.-led regime change. The interim president also presided over an assembly promoted by Maduro in response to street protests in 2017 meant to neutralize the opposition-majority legislature.
She enjoys a close relationship with the military, which has long acted as the arbiter of political disputes in Venezuela, said Ronal Rodr\u00edguez, a spokesperson for the Venezuela Observatory of Rosario University in Bogota, Colombia.
\u201cShe has a very particular relationship with power,\u201d he said. \u201cShe has developed very strong ties with elements of the armed forces and has managed to establish lines of dialogue with them, largely on a transactional basis.\u201d
It’s unclear how long Rodr\u00edguez will hold power, or how closely she will work with the Trump administration.
Geoff Ramsey, a senior nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council, a Washington research institute, said Rodr\u00edguez’s initially firm tone with the Trump administration may have been an attempt to \u201csave face.\u201d Others have noted that Maduro’s capture required some level of collaboration within the Venezuelan government.
\u201cShe can\u2019t exactly expect to score points with her revolutionary peers if she presents herself as a patsy for U.S. interests“, Ramsey said.
Venezuela\u2019s constitution requires an election within 30 days whenever the president becomes \u201cpermanently unavailable\u201d to serve. Reasons listed include death, resignation, removal from office or \u201cabandonment\u201d of duties as declared by the National Assembly.
That electoral timeline was rigorously followed when Maduro\u2019s predecessor, Chavez, died of cancer in 2013. However, the loyalist Supreme Court, in its decision Saturday, cited another provision of the charter in declaring Maduro\u2019s absence a \u201ctemporary\u201d one.
In such a scenario, there is no election requirement. Instead, the vice president, an unelected position, takes over for up to 90 days \u2014 a period that can be extended to six months with a vote of the National Assembly.
In handing temporary power to Rodr\u00edguez, the Supreme Court made no mention of the 180-day time limit, leading some to speculate she could try to remain in power even longer as she seeks to unite the disparate factions of the ruling socialist party while shielding it from what would certainly be a stiff electoral challenge.
\u2014\u2014 Janetsky reported from Mexico City and Debre reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Associated Press writers Joshua Goodman in Miami, Darlene Superville aboard Air Force One and Jorge Rueda in Caracas, Venezuela, contributed to this report.<\/p>\n