Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, who was sworn in on Saturday, is not the country’s legitimate leader, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.
Rubio spoke with Rodriguez — the country’s vice president — after the US conducted a daring military operation to capture the former Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro.
However, he suggested the US will not support her staying in power. He called for elections to determine the next leader of the beleaguered South American country.
“This is not about the legitimate president. We don’t believe that this regime in place is legitimate via an election,” Rubio told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “And that’s not just us. It’s 60-something countries around the world that have taken that view as well.”
“Ultimately, legitimacy for their system of government will come about through a period of transition and real elections,” he continued. “It’s the reason why Maduro is not just an indicted drug trafficker. He [was an] illegitimate president. He was not the head of state.”
Rubio revealed that the Trump administration will leverage its oil quarantine on Venezuela to force Caracas to make changes.
“I cannot overstate how crippling this is for their future, [and] that, on the other hand, there’s an alternative to that … an oil industry that actually benefits the people,” the secretary of state said.
Trump suggested Saturday that Rodriguez was the country’s proper interim leader — claiming she was cooperating with the US. However, she was quick to condemn America’s action in Venezuela as she swore loyalty to Maduro.
Rodriguez, 56, is a staunch socialist who is known for her avid support of Maduro alongside her brother, Jorge Rodriguez, who currently presides over Venezuela’s congress.
The new leader has been described as a ruthlessly ambitious and Machiavellian politician willing to do whatever is necessary to move up in the ranks, former colleagues and US officials told the Wall Street Journal.
“They are very, very manipulative,” Andrés Izarra, a former minister under Maduro who now lives in exile, told the outlet about the Rodriguez siblings.
“I think they will maneuver to stay in power as long as they can,” Izarra.
Rodriguez also maintains a close relationship with Cuba and its intelligence agency, which Maduro relied on to help rule the country and protect himself.
Rodriguez is also the daughter of Jorge Antonio Rodriguez, the mastermind behind the 1976 kidnapping of American business executive William Niehous, who was held captive for three and a half years before being released.
With Rodriguez taking a stand against the US, it remains unclear who exactly the US will back to lead the nation prior to any democratic election.
While many have backed opposition leader and Nobel Prize winner María Corina Machado or Maduro’s 2024 opponent Edmundo González to take over, Trump said he believes Machado isn’t strong enough.
Rubio also demurred. The secretary of state also tried to pour cold water on claims that the operation in Venezuela will result in a repeat of America’s prolonged war in the Middle East.
“The whole, you know, foreign policy apparatus thinks everything is Libya, everything is Iraq, everything is Afghanistan. This is not the Middle East,” he told Face the Nation.
“And our mission here is very different,” he added, stressing that the operation was to put an end to the Maduro regime, which he accused of having dealings with Iran and Hezbollah.
Rubio also echoed Trump’s warning that further US military action, including an occupation of Venezuela, was still on the table.
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