\n Following the capture of President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro during a US military operation in Venezuela, the command of the South American country has fallen into the hands of Executive Vice President Delcy Rodr\u00edguez.\n <\/p>\n
\n That is what Venezuela\u2019s constitution outlines in its different scenarios anticipating a president\u2019s absence. Under Articles 233 and 234, whether the absence is temporary or absolute, the vice president takes over the presidential duties.\n <\/p>\n
\n Rodr\u00edguez \u2013 also minister for both finance and oil \u2013 stepped into the role on Saturday afternoon. Hours after the capture of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, she chaired a National Defense Council session, surrounded by other ministers and senior officials, and demanded the couple\u2019s \u201cimmediate release\u201d while condemning the US military operation.\n <\/p>\n
\n Standing before the Venezuelan flag, Rodr\u00edguez said the early-morning operation represents a blatant violation of international law and Venezuela\u2019s sovereignty. She added that the action must be rejected by Venezuelans and condemned by governments across Latin America.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe call on the peoples of the great homeland to remain united, because what was done to Venezuela can be done to anyone. That brutal use of force to bend the will of the people can be carried out against any country,\u201d she told the council in an address broadcast by state television channel VTV.\n <\/p>\n
\n Rodr\u00edguez, 56, is from Caracas and studied law at the Central University of Venezuela.\n <\/p>\n
\n She has spent more than two decades as one of the leading figures of chavismo, the political movement founded by President Hugo Ch\u00e1vez and led by Maduro since Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s death in 2013.\n <\/p>\n
\n Alongside her brother Jorge Rodr\u00edguez, the current president of the National Assembly, she has held various positions of power since the Ch\u00e1vez era. She served as minister of communication and information from 2013 to 2014 and later became foreign minister from 2014 to 2017. In that role, she defended Maduro\u2019s government against international criticism, including allegations of democratic backsliding and human rights abuses in the country.\n <\/p>\n
\n As foreign minister, Rodr\u00edguez represented Venezuela at forums such as the United Nations, where she accused other governments of seeking to undermine her country.\n <\/p>\n
\n In 2017, Rodr\u00edguez became president of the Constituent National Assembly that expanded the government\u2019s powers after the opposition won the 2015 legislative elections. In 2018, Maduro appointed her vice president for his second term. She retained the post during his third presidential term, which began on January 10, 2025, following the controversial July 28, 2024, elections. Until the president\u2019s capture, she served as Venezuela\u2019s chief economic authority and minister of petroleum.\n <\/p>\n
\n Venezuela\u2019s opposition maintains that the 2024 elections were fraudulent and that Maduro is not a legitimately elected president. They insist that the true winner was former ambassador Edmundo Gonz\u00e1lez Urrutia, a position supported by some governments in the region.\n <\/p>\n
\n Jos\u00e9 Manuel Romano, a constitutional lawyer and political analyst, told CNN that the positions Rodr\u00edguez has held show she is a \u201cvery prominent\u201d figure within the Venezuelan government and someone who enjoys the president\u2019s \u201cfull trust.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe executive vice president of the republic is a highly effective operator, a woman with strong leadership skills for managing teams,\u201d Romano said.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cShe is very results-oriented and has significant influence over the entire government apparatus, including the Ministry of Defense. That is very important to note in the current circumstances,\u201d he added.\n <\/p>\n
On the path to an understanding with the US?<\/p>\n
\n Hours after Maduro\u2019s capture, and before Rodr\u00edguez addressed the National Defense Council, US President Donald Trump said at a press conference that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had spoken with the vice president. According to Trump, she appeared willing to work with Washington on a new phase for Venezuela.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cShe had a conversation with Marco. She said, \u2018We\u2019re going to do whatever you need.\u2019 I think she was quite courteous. We\u2019re going to do this right,\u201d Trump said.\n <\/p>\n
\n Trump\u2019s remarks, however, surprised some analysts, who believe Rodr\u00edguez is unlikely to make concessions to the United States.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cShe is not a moderate alternative to Maduro. She has been one of the most powerful and hard-line figures in the entire system,\u201d Imdat Oner, a policy analyst at the Jack D. Gordon Institute and a former Turkish diplomat based in Venezuela, told CNN.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cHer rise to power appears to be the result of some kind of understanding between the United States and key actors preparing for a post-Maduro scenario. In that context, she would essentially serve as a caretaker until a democratically elected leader takes office,\u201d the analyst added.\n <\/p>\n
\n In her first messages following Maduro\u2019s capture, Rodr\u00edguez showed no signs of backing down and, without referencing Trump\u2019s statements, closed the door to any potential cooperation with the United States.\n <\/p>\n
\n Earlier in the morning, during a phone interview with VTV, Rodr\u00edguez said the whereabouts of Maduro and Flores were unknown and demanded proof that they were alive. Later in the afternoon, during the National Defense Council session, she escalated her rhetoric, condemned the US operation and, despite the circumstances, insisted that Maduro remains in charge of Venezuela.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThere is only one president in this country, and his name is Nicol\u00e1s Maduro Moros,\u201d said Rodr\u00edguez \u2014 now, by force of events, the most visible face of the government.\n <\/p>\n
\n Reuters news agency contributed to this report.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following the capture of President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro during a US military operation in Venezuela, the command of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386791,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-386790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}