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VENEZUELA’S PARLIAMENT HAS sworn in Delcy Rodriguez as interim president, hours after her predecessor Nicolas Maduro pleaded not guilty to drugs and weapons charges in a New York federal courthouse.
Rodriguez, who has indicated she will cooperate with Washington, took the oath of office during a ceremony in the National Assembly, telling lawmakers she was doing so “in the name of all Venezuelans.”
She said she was “in pain over the kidnapping of our heroes, the hostages in the United States,” referring to Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, who were captured by the US on Saturday in a military raid in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas.
Venezuela’s Supreme Court ordered Rodriguez to assume the presidency on Saturday “in an acting capacity”. The country’s military subsequently voiced its support for her.
Parliament denounced the capture while vowing support for his stand-in Rodriguez, who had been Maduro’s vice president.
Her brother, Jorge Rodriguez, was re-elected as parliament speaker. He vowed to pursue “all procedures, all platforms, and all avenues to bring back Nicolas Maduro Moros, my brother, my president.”
Maduro’s lawmaker son Nicolas Maduro Guerra also offered his support for the acting president.
“Count on me, count on my family,” Maduro Guerra, known as “Nicolasito,” told Rodriguez during an address to parliament, adding the country was “in good hands” until his parents’ “return.”
Outside, thousands of Venezuelans gathered to demand the release of their leader, chanting: “Maduro, hold on: Venezuela is rising!”
“Regardless of whether Nicolas Maduro has something to answer for in court, this was not the way to do it,” protestor Flur Alberto said.
Maduro Guerra said Venezuela “asks for neither privileges nor concessions; it demands respect… We want international relations with everyone, based on equality, mutual respect, and cooperation, without threats and without interference.”
He stepped outside to address the protesters, telling them he was in “indirect” contact with his father. “We have a strong team over there that’s supporting us,” he said.
Meanwhile, in New York, a defiant Maduro insisted that he was still the president of his country as he appeared before 92-year-old Judge Alvin Hellerstein this evening alongside his wife Cilia Flores.
Smiling as he entered the courtroom and wearing an orange shirt with beige trousers, the 63-year-old spoke in Spanish through an interpreter.
“I’m president of the Republic of Venezuela and I’m here kidnapped since 3 January, Saturday,” Maduro said. “I was captured at my home in Caracas, Venezuela.”
The charges were put to Maduro in court: narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.
Asked for his plea, he stated: “I am innocent. I am not guilty. I am a decent man, the president of my country.”
Maduro’s wife Cilia Flores likewise pleaded not guilty. The judge ordered both to remain behind bars and set a new hearing date of 17 March.
Trump has said the US will “run” Venezuela temporarily, but US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday that it would not govern the country day-to-day other than enforcing an existing “oil quarantine”.
Today, the US representative to the UN Security Council Mike Waltz insisted they were “not occupying a country”, describing the capture of the Maduros as a “law enforcement operation”.
Trump has also suggested that he wants to extend American power further in the Western Hemisphere.
Speaking aboard Air Force One, he called Colombia’s president Gustavo Petro, “a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States. And he’s not going to be doing it very long.”
He has said he wants to work with Delcy Rodriguez and the rest of Maduro’s former team – provided that they submit to US demands on oil.
“We need total access. We need access to the oil and other things in their country that allow us to rebuild their country,” he said.
And after an initially hostile response, Rodriguez said she is ready for “cooperation.”
Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves. However, the oil is difficult and expensive to produce and after years of international sanctions and mismanagement, the infrastructure is in poor shape.
Shares in US oil majors Chevron, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips shares surged on Wall Street today.
With reporting from © AFP 2026
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