Delcy Rodríguez takes over as president of Venezuela and calls for the US to cooperate

Delcy Rodríguez, who until now was vice president of Venezuela under Nicolás Maduro’s government, is set to be formally sworn in as “acting president” on Monday, and has called the United States to collaborate with the interim authorities towards “peace and dialogue.” Venezuela’s supreme court ordered Rodríguez to temporarily take charge of the country after the U.S. government captured Maduro in the early hours of Saturday, following a large-scale military strike. According to an anonymous senior Venezuelan official quoted by The New York Times, the attack left a death toll of at least 80 people. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel has stated 32 Cuban soldiers who were part of Maduro’s security team were killed during the operation, and declared two days of national mourning. In an Instagram post following a staff meeting on Sunday night, Rodríguez said that Venezuela “reaffirms its commitment to peace and peaceful coexistence” and that the country “aspires to live without external threats.” She added her priority is reaching “balanced and respectful international relations” between the United States and Venezuela, as well as with other countries, and that her main premise is “sovereign equality and non-interference.” In her first message as interim president, Rodríguez invited the U.S. to collaborate with Venezuela “on an agenda of cooperation oriented towards shared development within the framework of international law.” “President Donald Trump, our peoples and our region deserve peace and dialogue, not war,” she stated, emphasizing that “this has always been President Nicolás Maduro’s message.” Rodríguez’s call for cooperation is a shift from her prior message following Maduro’s arrest. In a televised statement on Saturday, she had said that the capture of Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores was “an illegal and illegitimate kidnapping” and described the attack as “barbaric” and a crime against humanity. “There is only one president in Venezuela, and his name is Nicolás Maduro Moros,” she said. “We will never again be anyone’s colony,” she also stated. A Venezuela government statement had also called the attack a “colonialist war,” saying that the goal of the U.S. government was to get hold of Venezuela’s oil and mineral resources. United States-Venezuela cooperation? The U.S. government has also shifted its tone regarding Rodríguez and the rest of the current administration, which until Saturday was under Maduro’s orders. A few hours after capturing the Venezuelan leader, U.S. President Donald Trump said that his country would be “running” Venezuela from now on, although they were working with Rodríguez. “She’s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again,” Trump had told the press, something Rodríguez seemingly rejected in her Saturday statement. In an interview with The Atlantic, published on Sunday, Trump said that if Rodríguez “doesn’t do what’s right,” she would “pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro.” On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in an interview with NBC that their government is willing to work with the existing Maduro-alligned authorities in Venezuela, although they do not recognize Rodríguez’s government as legitimate. He said that, while the U.S. would not be taking over the Venezuelan government, they would be controlling the “levers” of the country via its current “oil quarantine.” The U.S. Navy has been blocking Venezuelan oil tankers since December 17. State-owned oil company PDVSA had to start shutting down production after it ran out of storage space due to its inability to export the crude it was producing. You may also be interested in: Trump: ‘We’re going to run Venezuela until such time as a proper transition can take place’ “We don’t believe that this regime in place is legitimate via an election,” Rubio said. “Ultimately, legitimacy for their system of government will come about through a period of transition and real elections, which they have not had.” However, Rubio stated it was “premature” to talk about new elections for Venezuela in the short run. In interviews with the U.S. press, the Secretary of State said the Trump administration does not recognize opposition leaders María Corina Machado and Edmundo González Urrutia as the new heads of the Venezuelan government because, on the one hand, they are not currently in Venezuela, and on the other, they won in an election the U.S. considers illegitimate. What the Venezuelan opposition says Machado, who won the last Nobel Peace Prize for fighting for democracy in Venezuela, had supported the American strike, stating immediately in its aftermath that  “the hour for liberty arrived”. She had also called for Trump to confirm González Urrutia, who had been previously recognized as the winner of the July 28, 2024 elections by the U.S. — with Machado as his vice president — as the new Venezuelan leader, stating: “Today we are ready to fulfill our mandate and take power.” However, Trump discarded that option, saying on Saturday that Machado lacked “support and respect” within Venezuela, and declaring Delcy Rodríguez “is now the president.” Although Machado issued no response, González Urrutia released a message on video on Sunday where he called the U.S. intervention “an important step, but not enough.” “A true normalization for our country will only be possible when all Venezuelans deprived of their liberty for political reasons are released, and when the majority’s will, expressed by the Venezuelan people on July 28, is unambiguously respected,” he stated.