XPost: soc.culture.venezuela, sac.politics, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns, aus.politics   
   From: noreply@mixmin.net   
      
   Following the capture of President Nicolás Maduro during a US military   
   operation in Venezuela, the command of the South American country has   
   fallen into the hands of Executive Vice President Delcy Rodríguez.   
      
   That is what Venezuela’s constitution outlines in its different   
   scenarios anticipating a president’s absence. Under Articles 233 and   
   234, whether the absence is temporary or absolute, the vice president   
   takes over the presidential duties.   
      
   Rodríguez – also minister for both finance and oil – stepped into the   
   role on Saturday afternoon. Hours after the capture of Maduro and his   
   wife, Cilia Flores, she chaired a National Defense Council session,   
   surrounded by other ministers and senior officials, and demanded the   
   couple’s “immediate release” while condemning the US military operation.   
      
   Standing before the Venezuelan flag, Rodríguez said the early-morning   
   operation represents a blatant violation of international law and   
   Venezuela’s sovereignty. She added that the action must be rejected by   
   Venezuelans and condemned by governments across Latin America.   
      
   “We call on the peoples of the great homeland to remain united, because   
   what was done to Venezuela can be done to anyone. That brutal use of   
   force to bend the will of the people can be carried out against any   
   country,” she told the council in an address broadcast by state   
   television channel VTV.   
      
   An official with Maduro’s ‘full trust’   
   Rodríguez, 56, is from Caracas and studied law at the Central University   
   of Venezuela.   
      
   She has spent more than two decades as one of the leading figures of   
   chavismo, the political movement founded by President Hugo Chávez and   
   led by Maduro since Chávez’s death in 2013.   
      
   Alongside her brother Jorge Rodríguez, the current president of the   
   National Assembly, she has held various positions of power since the   
   Chávez era. She served as minister of communication and information from   
   2013 to 2014 and later became foreign minister from 2014 to 2017. In   
   that role, she defended Maduro’s government against international   
   criticism, including allegations of democratic backsliding and human   
   rights abuses in the country.   
      
   As foreign minister, Rodríguez represented Venezuela at forums such as   
   the United Nations, where she accused other governments of seeking to   
   undermine her country.   
      
   In 2017, Rodríguez became president of the Constituent National Assembly   
   that expanded the government’s powers after the opposition won the 2015   
   legislative elections. In 2018, Maduro appointed her vice president for   
   his second term. She retained the post during his third presidential   
   term, which began on January 10, 2025, following the controversial July   
   28, 2024, elections. Until the president’s capture, she served as   
   Venezuela’s chief economic authority and minister of petroleum.   
      
   Venezuela’s opposition maintains that the 2024 elections were fraudulent   
   and that Maduro is not a legitimately elected president. They insist   
   that the true winner was former ambassador Edmundo González Urrutia, a   
   position supported by some governments in the region.   
      
   José Manuel Romano, a constitutional lawyer and political analyst, told   
   CNN that the positions Rodríguez has held show she is a “very prominent”   
   figure within the Venezuelan government and someone who enjoys the   
   president’s “full trust.”   
      
   “The executive vice president of the republic is a highly effective   
   operator, a woman with strong leadership skills for managing teams,”   
   Romano said.   
      
   “She is very results-oriented and has significant influence over the   
   entire government apparatus, including the Ministry of Defense. That is   
   very important to note in the current circumstances,” he added.   
      
   https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/03/americas/delcy-rodriguez-venezuela-leader-   
   atl-latam   
      
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