BOGOTÁ, WASHINGTON, D.C. — During a news conference on Saturday in Palm Beach, President Donald Trump said “a group of people” were running Venezuela after the U.S. military captured Nicolas Maduro and Cilia Flores in Caracas.
Trump said Delcy Rodriguez, Maduro’s vice president, was “quite gracious” and “she really” didn’t have a choice, but to allow the U.S. to take over.
“We are going to get the oil flowing,” Trump said.
Hours later, Rodriguez, 56, delivered a national address in Spanish that aired on TV and social media to refer to the captures as “barbaric” and as an “illegal and illegitimate kidnapping.”
Rodriguez also referred to the U.S. as an “invading enemy” driven by extremism, and said China and Russia recognized Venezuela as a “victim” of an attack.
Venezuelan migrants celebrated from Doral to Bogotá.
A Pentagon spokesperson released a statement saying the capture “represents a culmination of tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela dating as far back as 1998, with the election of President Hugo Chavez, a Venezuelan socialist who espoused anti-U.S. rhetoric and formed close ties with Cuba, Iran and Russia.”
Maduro is “the only president,” Rodriguez said. Trump said she had been sworn in to the Venezuelan presidency.
Rodriguez rose to power with the support of Maduro, who handpicked her as his vice president, and Diosdado Cabello, who supported her ascent at the National Constituent Assembly.
In a biography on a government’s website, Maduro’s regime described Rodriguez, also known as Delcy Eloína Rodríguez Gómez, as “a Venezuelan lawyer, politician, and diplomat” who had served as the minister of communications and foreign affairs.
“We will never again be slaves ... we will never again be a colony of any empire, of whatever stripe,” Rodriguez said during her national address on Saturday.
Rodriguez’s bio includes having earned a law degree from the Central University of Venezuela and studying overseas at the University Paris Nanterre and at Birkbeck, University of London.
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