Venezuela’s Supreme Court on Saturday appointed Vice President Delcy Rodríguez as the country’s interim leader after U.S. authorities detained President Nicolás Maduro and removed him from the country.
In its ruling, the court ordered Rodríguez to “assume and exercise, in an acting capacity, all the attributes, duties, and powers inherent to the office of President” to ensure continuity of government and national defense. The court said it would later deliberate on the legal framework needed to preserve state stability, government administration, and sovereignty during what it described as the president’s forced absence.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Washington would temporarily oversee Venezuela until a leadership transition could be arranged.
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“We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition,” Trump said at a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. He added that the U.S. wanted to avoid repeating years of political instability.
Trump offered few specifics on how the United States would govern a sovereign nation whose vice president, legislature, and military remain in place and have publicly opposed the U.S. action. He said U.S. oil companies would be sent to Venezuela to repair damaged energy infrastructure, even as he confirmed that the embargo on Venezuelan oil would remain in effect and U.S. forces would stay on alert.
“We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country,” Trump said.
A plane carrying Maduro landed shortly before 5 p.m. local time at Stewart Airport in New York, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity. Maduro is expected to be transferred to New York City.
Trump said the intervention would be carried out with a group of senior U.S. officials, focusing on rebuilding oil infrastructure while ensuring the Venezuelan population is “also taken care of.”