Venezuela's Supreme Court late Saturday ordered Vice-President Delcy Rodríguez to become the country's interim leader, after the United States seized President Nicolas Maduro and whisked him out of the country.
The high court ruled that Rodríguez "assume and exercise, in an acting capacity, all the attributes, duties and powers inherent to the office of President...to guarantee administrative continuity and the comprehensive defence of the nation."
The judges stopped short of declaring Maduro permanently absent from office, a ruling that requires holding elections within 30 days.
Trump said Saturday that the US would run Venezuela until a leadership transition could be organised.
“We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” Trump said at a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. “So we don’t want to be involved with having somebody else get in, and we have the same situation that we had for the last long period of years.”
Trump offered almost no details on how the US would “run” a sovereign nation when its vice-president, legislature and military were still in place and publicly opposing the US move. He said it would include deploying US oil companies to the country, though he indicated that his embargo “on all Venezuelan oil remains in full effect” and that US forces would stay on alert.
“We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country,” Trump said.
A plane carrying Maduro landed just before 5pm local time at New York’s Stewart airport, from where he will be transported to New York City, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to identified.
Trump said the intervention in Venezuela would be done “with a group” largely comprised of senior US officials and with an emphasis on repairing oil infrastructure and making sure the people of Venezuela were “also taken care of.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had been in recent contact with Rodríguez, the US president said, adding he expected her cooperation going forward.
“She had a long conversation with Marco, and she said, ‘We’ll do whatever you need,’” Trump said. “I think she was quite gracious, but she really doesn’t have a choice.”
'Kidnapping'
Rodríguez, however, called Maduro’s arrest a “kidnapping,” and a “barbaric” act. Speaking on state television alongside the country’s defence council, she vowed that Venezuela would never be a colony and demanded Maduro’s return.
Rodríguez, insisted in a live address that "We are ready to defend Venezuela; we are ready to defend our natural resources."
Speaking on television, Rodríguez demanded "the immediate release of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores."
"The only president of Venezuela, President Nicolás Maduro," she insisted.
Asked if US boots would be on the ground, Trump said he was “not afraid” of the idea to make sure the country was run properly. He later told the New York Post there would be no US troops in the country if Rodríguez “does what we want.”
Maduro and his wife were travelling via ship and then plane to New York to face an indictment on alleged drug-trafficking, weapons and conspiracy charges, the US president said. He added that no US citizens were killed and no US military equipment was lost in the mission to capture the Venezuelan leader, calling it “an assault like people have not seen since World War Two.”
The attack offered the latest dramatic demonstration of Trump’s willingness in his second term to deploy US military power to achieve his foreign policy aims with sweeping implications for both Venezuela, a nation with vast oil reserves, and the region.
Trump said the US had been prepared to carry out a “second wave” of strikes if needed but that was now probably not necessary. “The American armada remains poised in position, and the United States retains all military options until United States demands have been fully met and fully satisfied,” Trump said.
Blow for Machado
Trump also appeared to cast doubt on opposition leader María Corina Machado running the country, suggesting he did not see her as a viable replacement for Maduro.
“I think it would be very tough for her to be the leader. She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country,” he said. “She’s a very nice woman, but she doesn’t have the respect.”
Trump said he did not know the whereabouts of Machado, who is in an unknown location, and indicated he had not been in contact with her.
Machado on X earlier Saturday said the Venezuelan opposition was ready to assume power, calling for Edmundo González Urrutia – her stand-in candidate in recent elections – to take office and urging Venezuela's Armed Forces to recognise him.
– TIMES/AFP/BLOOMBERG
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