Venezuela’s Supreme Court on Saturday night directed Vice-President Delcy Rodríguez to take over as interim leader following the dramatic removal of President Nicolás Maduro by the United States.
In its ruling, the court instructed Rodríguez to “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 justices further stated that Rodríguez would take over “the office of President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, in order to guarantee administrative continuity and the comprehensive defense of the Nation.”
The court added that it would continue deliberations to “determine the applicable legal framework to guarantee the continuity of the State, the administration of government, and the defense of sovereignty in the face of the forced absence of the President of the Republic.”
Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump said Washington would take control of Venezuela’s affairs until a new leadership arrangement is put in place.
“We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” Trump said during a press briefing at his Mar-a-Lago residence 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 gave few specifics on how the United States intends to “run” Venezuela, despite the continued existence of the country’s vice-president, legislature and military, all of which have publicly rejected the U.S. action. He suggested, however, that American oil firms would play a central role, even as he insisted that Washington’s embargo “on all Venezuelan oil remains in full effect” and that U.S. troops would remain on high 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.
According to a source familiar with the situation, a plane carrying Maduro touched down shortly before 5 p.m. local time at Stewart Airport in New York. The source, who requested anonymity, said the former Venezuelan leader would be transferred onward to New York City.
Trump said the U.S. action in Venezuela would be carried out “with a group” made up largely of senior American officials, stressing that the focus would be on restoring oil facilities and ensuring that ordinary Venezuelans were “also taken care of.”
