A top Venezuelan official declared on Sunday that the country’s government would stay unified behind President Nicolas Maduro, whose capture by the United States has sparked deep uncertainty about what is next for the oil-rich South American nation.
Maduro is in a New York detention center awaiting a Monday court appearance on drug charges. U.S. President Donald Trump, who went golfing on Sunday, ordered his seizure from Venezuela on Saturday and said the U.S. would take control of the country.
But in Caracas, top officials in Maduro’s government, who have called the detentions of Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores a kidnapping, were still in charge.
“Here, the unity of the revolutionary force is more than guaranteed, and here there is only one president, whose name is Nicolas Maduro Moros. Let no one fall for the enemy’s provocations,” Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said in an audio recording released by the ruling PSUV socialist party.
Images of the 63-year-old Maduro, opens new tab blindfolded and handcuffed on Saturday stunned Venezuelans. The operation was Washington’s most controversial intervention in Latin America, opens new tab since the invasion of Panama 37 years ago.
Without providing specifics, Defense Minister General Vladimir Padrino said on state television the U.S. attack killed soldiers, civilians and a “large part” of Maduro’s security detail “in cold blood.” Venezuela’s armed forces have been activated to guarantee sovereignty, he said.
Vice President Delcy Rodriguez — who also serves as oil minister — has taken over as interim leader with the blessing of Venezuela’s top court, though she has said Maduro remains president.
Because of her connections with the private sector and deep knowledge of oil, the country’s top revenue source, Rodriguez has long been considered the most pragmatic member of Maduro’s inner circle. But she has publicly contradicted Trump’s claim she is willing to work with the United States.
Trump said Rodriguez may pay a bigger price than Maduro “if she doesn’t do what’s right,” according to an interview with The Atlantic magazine on Sunday.
The Venezuelan communications ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on that remark.
‘A QUARANTINE ON THEIR OIL’
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Venezuela’s next leader should be aligned with U.S. interests. Those include keeping Venezuela’s oil industry out of the hands of U.S. adversaries and stopping drug trafficking. He cited an ongoing U.S. blockade on tankers under sanctions as leverage.
“That means their economy will not be able to move forward until the conditions that are in the national interest of the United States and the interest of the Venezuelan people are met,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.”
The Venezuelan government has said for months Trump was seeking to take the country’s vast natural resources, especially its oil, and officials made much of his comment on Saturday that major U.S. oil companies would move in.
“We are outraged because in the end everything was revealed — it was revealed that they only want our oil,” added Cabello.
Once one of the most prosperous nations in Latin America, Venezuela’s economy tanked in the 2000s under President Hugo Chavez and nosedived further under Maduro, sending about one in five Venezuelans abroad in one of the world’s biggest exoduses.
MUTED STREETS
Some Maduro supporters gathered at a government-sponsored protest march on Sunday afternoon in Caracas.
Once ruled by Spain, Venezuela’s “people must not surrender, nor should we ever become a colony of anyone again,” said demonstrator Reinaldo Mijares. “This country is not a country of the defeated.”
Maduro opponents in Venezuela have been wary of celebrating his seizure, and the presence of security forces seemed, if anything, lighter than usual on Sunday.
Despite a nervous mood, some bakeries and coffee shops were open and joggers and cyclists were out as usual. Some citizens were stocking up on essentials.
“Yesterday I was very afraid to go out, but today I had to. This situation caught me without food and I need to figure things out. After all, Venezuelans are used to enduring fear,” said a single mother in oil city Maracaibo who bought rice, vegetables and tuna.
To the disappointment of Venezuela’s opposition, Trump has given short shrift to the idea of 58-year-old opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado taking over, saying she lacked support.
Machado was banned from standing in the 2024 election but has said her ally Edmundo Gonzalez, 76, who the opposition and some international observers say overwhelmingly won that vote, has a democratic mandate to take the presidency.
LOOMING QUESTIONS
It is unclear how Trump plans to oversee Venezuela and he runs the risk of alienating some supporters who oppose foreign interventions.
U.S. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said the White House has failed to say how long the U.S. intends to be in Venezuela and how many American troops might be required.
“The American people are worried that this is creating an endless war — the very thing that Donald Trump campaigned against,” Schumer said on ABC’s “This Week.” He said lawmakers would weigh a measure to constrain further Trump administration action in Venezuela, though its prospects could be uncertain given that Congress is controlled by Trump’s Republicans.
While many Western nations oppose Maduro, there were many calls for the U.S. to respect international law and questions arose over the legality of seizing a foreign head of state.
In a statement on Sunday, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, echoing the message put forth by the Trump administration since Maduro’s capture, described the action as a “law enforcement mission” to force him to face U.S. criminal charges filed in 2020, including narco-terrorism conspiracy.
Maduro has denied criminal involvement.
The U.N. Security Council planned to meet on Monday to discuss the attack. Russia and China, both major backers of Venezuela, have criticized the U.S.
Source: Reuters
--Agencies
