Venezuela’s interim leader, Delcy Rodriguez, has said that no foreign power was governing her country, even as US President Donald Trump announced Caracas will be swiftly turning over millions of barrels of oil to the United States.
Rodriguez, who was vice president under toppled leader Nicolas Maduro, has given mixed signals about how much she is prepared to cooperate with Trump, at times sounding conciliatory, at others defiant.
Speaking three days after US special forces snatched Maduro and his wife in a stunning raid in Caracas, Rodriguez said, “The government of Venezuela is in charge in our country, and no one else.”
“There is no foreign agent governing Venezuela.”
Trump insists Washington is now “in charge” of the Caribbean country but has said he is prepared to work with Rodriguez — provided she submits to his demand for access to Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.
The US leader was startlingly direct about his intent regarding the South American country’s reserves, announcing on his Truth Social platform late Tuesday that Rodriguez “will be turning over between 30 and 50 MILLION Barrels of High Quality, Sanctioned Oil” to the United States.
“This oil will be sold at its market price, and that money will be controlled by me” as president, Trump said, adding that he has tasked Energy Secretary Chris Wright with “immediately” executing the plan.
‘No Surrender’
Rodriguez has offered an olive branch but also appeared anxious to keep on her side the hardliners who control the security forces and paramilitaries, which have patrolled the streets since Maduro’s capture.
“We are a people that does not surrender, we are a people that does not give up,” she declared, paying tribute to the “martyrs” of the US attacks.
She said the country is holding seven days of mourning for those killed.
In its first confirmation of losses, Venezuela’s military on Tuesday published a list of 23 troops, including five generals, killed in the US strikes.
Top ally Havana separately issued a list of 32 dead Cuban military personnel, many of whom were members of Maduro’s security detail.
Venezuela has not yet confirmed the number of civilian casualties in the operation in which US forces grabbed Maduro and Flores and took them to the United States to face trial.
Attorney General Tarek William Saab spoke Tuesday of “dozens” of civilian and military dead, without giving a breakdown.
‘Trump, Murderer’
Thousands of supporters of the presidential couple, including powerful Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, marched through Caracas demanding their release.
Fear of state repression has made it so that the unpopular Maduro’s many detractors are loath to celebrate his downfall.
Maduro and Flores appeared in court Monday in New York, where they pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and other charges.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has called on the United States to ensure they receive a fair trial.
Interim President’s Challenges
Rodriguez has sought to project unity with Cabello and Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez, two hardliners seen as the main powerbrokers in the Maduro administration.
Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, sidelined by Washington in the post-Maduro transition, warned in a Fox News interview that Rodriguez was not to be trusted.
“Delcy Rodriguez, as you know, is one of the main architects of torture, persecution, corruption, narcotrafficking,” she said.
“She’s the main ally and liaison with Russia, China, Iran, certainly not an individual that could be trusted by international investors.”
In a sign that a repressive security apparatus remains in place, 16 journalists and media workers were detained in Venezuela on Monday, according to a journalists’ union.
All were later released.
Trump has warned that Rodriguez will pay “a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro” if she does not comply with Washington’s agenda.
A retired general who held high-ranking positions in the military predicted that Rodriguez would throw open Venezuela to US oil and mining companies and perhaps resume diplomatic ties, broken off by Maduro in 2019.
He also believed she would seek to appease criticism of Venezuela’s dire rights record by releasing political prisoners.
Trump told Republican lawmakers Tuesday that Maduro was a “violent guy” who “killed millions of people” and claimed that Rodriguez’s administration was “closing up” a torture chamber in Caracas.
The constitution says that after Maduro is formally declared absent — which could happen after six months — elections must then be held within 30 days.
Machado told Fox News she was confident the opposition, widely seen as the real victors of the 2024 elections, would win “over 90 per cent of the votes.”
