Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez has struck a defiant tone against the United States in her first major public address since the early-morning invasion of her country on Saturday, suggesting President Donald Trump may not be able to “run” Venezuela as he planned.
Speaking in an all-channels emergency broadcast on Saturday, Rodríguez and other high-ranking officials branded the capture of President Nicolás Maduro as “barbaric” and an “illegal and illegitimate kidnapping,” adding that Venezuela will never be colonized by foreign powers.
“If there is one thing that the Venezuelan people and this country are absolutely clear about, it is that we will never again be slaves,” the 56-year-old politician said.
“All of Venezuela is mobilized… There is only one president in this country, and his name is Nicolás Maduro Moros.”
Earlier in the day, Rodríguez had appeared in an audio message on state TV calling for proof of life of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
Her address was delivered to a nation in crisis following the 2 a.m. raid, prompting questions about who is currently in charge.
A detained Maduro arrived in handcuffs in New York City on Saturday evening and is expected to make an initial court appearance on Monday to face charges of narco-terrorism against the United States.
“She’s, I guess, the president,” Trump said at a press conference at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday. “She had a long conversation with [Secretary of State] Marco [Rubio] and said we’ll do what you need. She had no choice.”
“Marco is working on that directly. He just had a conversation with [Rodríguez], and she’s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again,” Trump said.
“We have a group of people running [Venezuela] until such a time it can be put back on track, make a lot of money for [Venezuelans]… give people a great way of life, and also [reimburse the] people in our country who were forced out of Venezuela,” he added.
Rodríguez’s verbal rebuttal appears to throw a wrench in Trump’s proposed plan.
Venezuela’s second-in-command has served in her current role since 2018, having worked previously as communications minister and then as foreign minister.
She is the daughter of the left-wing guerrilla fighter Jorge Antonio Rodríguez, the founder of the revolutionary Liga Socialista party in the 1970s, and was described by Maduro as “a young woman, brave, seasoned, daughter of a martyr, revolutionary and tested in a thousand battles,” upon her promotion to her current role.
In addition to the vice presidency, Rodriguez also serves as the finance minister and the oil minister in Maduro’s government. She has been dealing with the escalating U.S. sanctions on the country’s vast fossil fuel wealth.
Her brother, Jorge Rodríguez, is the head of the national assembly and was in the capital, Caracas, at the time of the U.S. attack, according to reports. However, those same reports suggest that Rodríguez herself was in Russia when the invasion occurred.
“Governments around the world are simply shocked that the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is the victim and target of an attack of this nature,” she continued in her address to the nation.
“It is truly shameful.”
