Acting President Delcy Rodriguez calls for a “balanced and respectful” relationship with Washington during the transition period.
Interim President Delcy Rodríguez has said she is ready to cooperate with the United States on Venezuela’s future, in a sharp change in tone from the aftermath of the military operation that led to the abduction of leader Nicolás Maduro by US special forces.
“I believe it is a priority to move toward a balanced and respectful relationship between the United States and Venezuela,” Rodriguez wrote on Telegram on Sunday.
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“We call on the U.S. government to collaborate on an agenda of cooperation for joint development,” she continued.
Rodriguez, who has been Maduro’s deputy since 2018, was named interim leader by Venezuela’s Supreme Court on Saturday after Maduro and his wife, Syria Flores, were captured in the highest-profile and most dangerous U.S. military operation since a U.S. Navy SEAL team killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden at his hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in 2011.
In a televised address on Saturday, Rodriguez condemned the U.S. action as an “atrocity that violates international law” and insisted that “Nicolas Maduro is the only president of Venezuela.”
Rodriguez’s televised comments caused a rift with President Trump, who suggested that U.S. officials had been in contact with her shortly after Maduro’s capture and that she was willing to cooperate.
After Rodriguez went on TV to call his administration a group of “extremists,” Trump quickly changed his tone from calling Rodriguez “kind” to directly threatening him.
“If she doesn’t do the right thing, she’s going to pay a very high price, probably more than Maduro,” Trump said in an interview early Sunday morning.
The US president also said further attacks on Venezuela were possible and would not rule out putting Venezuela “on the ground”, reiterating that the US was now “in charge”.
The bellicose actions and stance, which have sparked protests in the United States and around the world, contradict President Trump’s campaign promises to put America first and protect the country from endless wars, as well as his previous criticism of the regime change in the Iraq war.
Separately, Rodriguez announced on Sunday that he had formed a committee to seek the release of Maduro and Flores from U.S. custody. The Venezuelan leader is charged with “narco-terrorism conspiracy, conspiracy to import cocaine, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.”
The commission will be co-chaired by Venezuelan Foreign Minister Iván Gil and her brother Jorge, president of the Venezuelan National Assembly.
Maduro may face a similar future to Panamanian President Manuel Noriega, who was taken by U.S. forces in 1990 after hiding in the country’s Vatican embassy in the aftermath of the U.S. invasion of Panama.
Noriega, once a staunch ally of the United States, was sentenced to 40 years in prison on similar charges of “extortion, drug smuggling and money laundering.” His sentence was reduced to 17 years for good behavior, but he was later extradited to France on other charges and later returned to Panama, where he served further prison terms until his death in 2017.
President Maduro is scheduled to appear in New York federal court on Monday.
Trump administration officials say the seizures are a law enforcement action aimed at holding Maduro accountable for criminal charges filed in 2020 over an alleged narco-terrorism conspiracy.
But Trump said other factors were at play, saying the attacks were partly caused by the influx of Venezuelan immigrants into the United States and Venezuela’s decision decades ago to nationalize American oil interests.
