CARCASS, Jan 4: Venezuela’s Supreme Court of Justice on late Saturday ordered Vice President Delcy Rodr?guez to immediately assume the role of acting president following the capture of President Nicol?s Maduro in a US military operation codenamed “Absolute Resolve.”
“In light of the exceptional situation created by the kidnapping of Nicolas Maduro Moro, President of the Republic, which constitutes a case of material and temporary impossibility for him to exercise his functions, order that the Executive Vice President of the Republic assume and exercise in an acting capacity all the powers, duties, and functions inherent in the office of President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, in order to ensure administrative continuity and the comprehensive defense of the nation,” Caryslia Rodriguez said in a statement broadcast by VTV.
Venezuela’s Constitution provides for such scenarios under Articles 233 and 234, allowing the vice president to take over presidential duties in the event of a temporary or absolute absence. Rodr?guez, who also serves as finance and oil minister, stepped into the role on Saturday afternoon.
Hours after Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were detained, Rodr?guez, 56 years old chaired a National Defense Council session, flanked by ministers and senior officials.
She demanded the couple’s “immediate release” and condemned the US operation, describing it as a “blatant violation of international law and Venezuela’s sovereignty.” She urged Venezuelans to reject the operation and called on governments across Latin America to condemn it.
Rodr?guez insisted that Maduro remains Venezuela’s only legitimate president.
State television broadcast Rodr?guez speaking from Caracas, despite previous reports that she was in Russia. “We call on the peoples of the great homeland to remain united, because what was done to Venezuela can be done to anyone,” she said. “That brutal use of force to bend the will of the people can be carried out against any country.”
Rodr?guez studied law at the Central University of Venezuela and has been a leading figure in the Chavismo movement, founded by Hugo Ch?vez and led by Maduro since 2013. Maduro has described her as a “tiger” for her steadfast defense of the socialist government. She works closely with her brother, Jorge Rodr?guez, head of the National Assembly.
Rodr?guez has been a central figure as she has been holding simultaneous roles as vice president, finance minister, and oil minister in managing Venezuela’s struggling economy. She has pursued orthodox economic policies in an attempt to curb hyperinflation.
Born on May 18, 1969, she is the daughter of Jorge Antonio Rodr?guez, a left-wing guerrilla fighter and founder of the revolutionary Liga Socialista party in the 1970s.
The judiciary’s decision was read on national radio and television by the court’s magistrate Tania D’Amelio.
“It is ordered that the citizen Delcy Eloina Rodriguez Gomez, executive vice-president of the republic, assume and exercise in the capacity of acting President, all the powers, duties and faculties inherent to the position of President,” said the supreme court decision.
The order also said that Rodriguez’s role as acting president “should be exercised immediately.”
Meanwhile, the court said it rejects and condemns the extremely serious military aggression carried out by the United States against the people and territory of Venezuela, as well as the kidnapping of Maduro and his wife.
It added that the US action flagrantly violates the Constitution and laws of Venezuela, as well as international law and the Charter of the United Nations, with the aim of seizing Venezuela’s strategic resources.
The court said it stands with the Venezuelan people in defending national independence and sovereignty, and called on all parties to make joint efforts to maintain peace and stability in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured in a large-scale US military operation against Venezuela early Saturday morning and were flown to New York.
(UNI)
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