In a dramatic escalation of the Venezuela crisis, Delcy Rodríguez was inaugurated as the nation’s interim president following a parliamentary session dominated by outrage over the U.S. military capture of former leader Nicolás Maduro. The 56-year-old former vice president decried what she termed the ‘kidnapping’ of Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores during a Saturday night raid by U.S. forces.
The political upheaval unfolded alongside a remarkable courtroom spectacle in New York where Maduro, appearing in shackles, pleaded not guilty to four charges including narco-terrorism conspiracy and weapons offenses. During the 30-minute hearing, Maduro defiantly declared himself ‘a decent man’ and ‘still president of my country,’ while being confronted by a Spanish-speaking protester who shouted that he would ‘pay’ for his actions.
International tensions flared at an emergency UN Security Council session where Venezuelan ambassador Samuel Moncada condemned the ‘illegitimate armed attack lacking any legal justification.’ U.S. ambassador Mike Waltz countered that Maduro represented an ‘illegitimate so-called president’ and defended the operation as a ‘surgical law enforcement action’ necessary to apprehend a ‘fugitive from justice.’
The operation itself involved over 150 aircraft and 200 personnel according to reports, drawing mixed reactions from U.S. leadership. While House Speaker Mike Johnson described the mission as ‘decisive and justified,’ Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer emerged from a classified briefing criticizing the subsequent plan for Venezuela as ‘vague, based on wishful thinking, and unsatisfying.’
Meanwhile, thousands of Venezuelans gathered outside the Federal Legislative Palace in Caracas to show support for Maduro and the new interim government. Rodríguez struck a conciliatory tone in her first cabinet meeting, inviting ‘the U.S. government to collaborate with us on an agenda of co-operation orientated towards shared development within the framework of international law’—a stark contrast to Trump’s warning that she could ‘pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro’ if she didn’t ‘do what’s right.’
The interim president vowed to guarantee ‘the spiritual tranquillity of our people, the economic and social tranquillity of our people’ despite the circumstances of her ascension. Maduro’s case continues with a next court hearing scheduled for March 17.