Venezuela’s acting president says her country is commited to peace and prioritises moving towards “balanced and respectful” relations with the US.
In a statement Delcy Rodriguez invites the US government to “collaborate with us on an agenda of cooperation” within the framework of international law.
“President Donald Trump, our peoples and our region deserve peace and dialogue, not war,” she says before concluding: “Venezuela has the right to peace, development, sovereignty and a future.”
Who is Delcy Rodriguez – Venezuela’s new acting president
Delcy Rodríguez – now Venezuela’s acting president – is a loyal lieutenant of Maduro, often appearing at events side-by-side with the president and his wife.
A lawyer and diplomat, she has held various political offices under Maduro.
As his vice-president, Rodriguez, 56, was part of his inner circle – describing him as the “only president” while demanding his release.
On Saturday, Donald Trump said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had been talking to Rodríguez, who had expressed her willingness to do “whatever the US asks”.
This was at odds withRodríguez publicly refusing that Venezuela would become “a colony of an empire”.
But at her first cabinet meeting on Sunday she struck a more conciliatory tone, calling for the US to collaborate with Venezuela.
Rodriguez to be sworn in as new Venezuelan leader – hours after warning from Trump
Delcy Rodríguez is due to be sworn in later as Venezuela’s president, hours after Donald Trump warned her she could pay a “very big price” if she “doesn’t do what’s right”.
In comments to the Atlantic on Sunday, the US president said: “If she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro.”
He added that for Venezuela: “Regime change, anything you want to call it, is better than what you have right now. Can’t get any worse”.
Trump has vowed the US will run the country until “a safe and proper and judicious transition” is possible. He also promised US oil companies will move into the country to fix infrastructure “and start making money for the country”.
For context: Venezuela’s Supreme Court officially designated Rodríguez as interim president over the weekend, but today she will appear before the National Assembly where she will be officially sworn in.
Maduro’s indictment – what you need to know
On Sunday, US Attorney General Pam Bondi outlined the charges brought against the Venezuelan President and his wife Cilia Flores.
Nicolás Maduro has been charged with “Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy, Cocaine Importation Conspiracy, Possession of Machineguns and Destructive Devices, and Conspiracy to Possess Machineguns and Destructive Devices against the United States”.
Later, President Trump summed these charges up as Maduro’s “campaign of deadly narco-terrorism” against the US and its citizens.
Maduro has previously denied being the leader of a drug cartel.
Trump also called Maduro an “illegitimate dictator”, adding that he had asked the Venezuelan leader to “surrender” a week before the strikes.
Bondi says that Maduro and his wife will “face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts”.
The pair are now in custody at a New York detention centre. Their court appearance could take place later today.
Maduro and Flores to appear in federal court to face charges
Nicolas Maduro is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, a notoriously overcrowded and unsanitary facility known for a history of violent incidents.
From there, he will be taken to federal court along with his wife Cilia Flores to be told of the charges they face – a 25-page indictment details allegations the couple enriched themselves from a violent crime ring smuggling tons of cocaine to the US.
Maduro has long rejected that as simply a pretext to force him from power.
The couple will enter their pleas with any bail request unlikely to be granted. President Trump has doubled down on his assertion that the US will now run Venezuela; demanding what he called total access to its oil industry.
There is no attempt by the White House to downplay the sense of coercion, with the US president again warning of a further military attack if Maduro’s remaining allies in power fail to do his bidding.
When asked to comment on their claim Maduro had been kidnapped by the US, Trump said that wasn’t a bad term.
SOURCE: BBC NEWS
