The former Venezuelan vice president, whom the White House says replaced ousted President Nicolas Maduro, has pledged to cooperate with Washington, according to the Trump administration.
Delcy Rodriguez, a high-profile figure in the Maduro regime, was sworn in as the country’s new president Saturday morning, according to President Donald Trump, shortly after he authorized an extraordinary military operation overnight that captured Maduro at his Caracas residence.
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The U.S. will “run” Venezuela until “we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition,” Trump said during a press conference at Mar-a-Lago detailing the stealthy operation. The U.S. ousted Maduro due to a myriad of concerns, including accusations that he oversaw sham elections, stole oil from the U.S., and helped funnel drugs and notorious Tren de Aragua members into the country.
Trump declined to take a hostile stance against Rodríguez during the Florida briefing, in which the president said she told Secretary of State Marco Rubio, “We’ll do whatever you need.” Trump later told the New York Post he would not post U.S. troops in Venezuela if Rodríguez “does what we want.”
“You have a vice president who’s been appointed by Maduro” in 2018, the president told reporters in the Sunshine State. “She was sworn in as president just a little while ago. She had a long conversation with Marco, and she said, ‘We’ll do whatever you need.’ I think she was quite gracious, but she really doesn’t have a choice. We’re going to have this done right. We’re not going to just do this with Maduro, then leave like everybody else, leave and say, you know, ‘let it go to hell.’”
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“We’re going to be a team that’s working with the people of Venezuela to make sure we have Venezuela right,” he added. “Because for us to just leave — who’s going to take over? I mean, there is nobody to take over … if we just left, it would have zero chance of ever coming back. We’ll run it properly. We’ll run it professionally. We’ll have the greatest oil companies in the world going in and invest billions and billions of dollars and take out money, use that money in Venezuela. And the biggest beneficiary is going to be the people of Venezuela, and also, I can’t stress this strongly enough, the people that got thrown out of Venezuela that are now in the United States.”
Rodríguez, 56, is known as one of Maduro’s closest allies, having held the top position in the country’s information, foreign, and oil ministries. Rodríguez, described by Maduro as a “tiger” for her spirited defense of his socialist government, was next in line to succeed Maduro under Venezuela’s constitution.
The Venezuelan government has not announced that Rodriguez was sworn in, and she could be in Russia, which has been a key ally to Maduro, according to Reuters, although Russian state media denied the report.
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In her first public remarks on Trump’s strikes against Venezuela, Rodríguez demanded “proof of life of President Nicolas Maduro and also the first lady Cilia Flores,” from the U.S.
Venezuela demands “the respect of international law” and condemned “this complete brutal aggression against our people,” Rodriguez said, according to TeleSUR English.
The former Venezuelan first couple is being escorted to New York, where they have been newly indicted and will stand trial, according to the Trump administration.
María Corina Machado, known as Venezuela’s leading political opposition to the Maduro regime, could be a top contender to replace Maduro. But Trump downplayed such hopes during his press briefing on Saturday. And Machado has called for 2024 presidential candidate Edmundo González to immediately assume power.
González is in exile in Spain after being widely considered by the U.S. and democratic allies as the legitimate leader in the election, which Maduro claimed he won.
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Trump inferred following Maduro’s capture that U.S. officials, including Rubio, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, would lead Venezuela during the transition period.
When pressed on his relationship with Rodriguez and what role she would continue to play in the country, Trump said that Rubio “is working on that directly.”
“Just had a conversation with her, and she’s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again, very simple,” he said.
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When pressed on why “running a country in South America is America first,” Trump replied he believes it is important for the U.S. “to surround ourselves with good neighbors.”
“We want to surround ourselves with stability. We want to surround ourselves with energy. We have tremendous energy in that country. It’s very important that we protect it. We need that for ourselves. We need that for the world,” he told reporters at Mar-a-Lago.
