On its third day without Nicolás Maduro in power, Venezuela wakes up silent, immersed in a tense calm in the face of uncertainty, but a stunned witness of an apparent institutional normality that hastily seeks to cover the power vacuum caused by the cinematic arrest of its president. And, in the middle of that unreal scene, the figure of Vice President Delcy Rodríguez emerges, who from one day to the next became the most important woman in Venezuela under the shadow of Donald Trump.
Rodríguez was sworn in this Monday as interim president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela before a National Assembly that, like her, was in office for the first time. “I come with pain for the suffering that has been caused to the Venezuelan people after an aggression against our homeland, due to the kidnapping of two of our heroes, President Nicolás Maduro and our fighter Cilia Flores,” he said. Meanwhile, Maduro appeared for the first time before the magistrate who will try him in New York for narcoterrorism: “I am Nicolás Maduro, president of Venezuela, and I am kidnapped here.”
The veteran Chavista leader, who led her first Council of Ministers on Sunday, assumes power backed by the majority of the 258 deputies who also began a legislature this Monday until 2031. It is a Parliament dominated by an overwhelming Chavista majority, elected in elections under accusations of fraud. His brother, Jorge Rodríguez, political operator of Chavismo, maintains the presidency of the Assembly. Everything changes, but nothing changes.
Only 12 deputies sit in the seats of the Federal Legislative Palace who can be considered true opposition to the regime. Dissident voices silenced inside and outside the chamber. The new Assembly was planned before everything changed in Venezuela. But it has acquired an unexpected prominence after a historic event that no one anticipated just a few weeks ago, even imagining the fall of Maduro: the swearing-in of Rodríguez as president in charge with the support of the United States.
The planned script was partially fulfilled. It was a political ritual designed to project the continuity and unity of Chavismo, hit by the shocks of recent days. “Delcy, you have my support and that of my family in this tremendous challenge that you are taking on. The country is in good hands,” proclaimed deputy Nicolás Maduro Guerra, known as Nicolasito, from the rostrum. The son of the Chavista president cried when talking about his father. Her message of support contradicts theories of a possible betrayal of Maduro by the new leader.
It is still unclear how much or how Rodríguez will govern. Much less when there will be elections. The president of the United States, Donald Trump, marked this Sunday a sequence as open as it is indefinite. “We are going to govern it, to fix it. We are going to have elections at the right time. But the main thing is to fix a failed country,” said the Republican, without specifying what role Caracas and himself will play in that process.
The Supreme Court of Justice interpreted Maduro’s capture as a “forced absence” of the head of state. And he ordered Rodríguez to assume the presidency. But the rules remain fuzzy. The Constitution establishes the steps in the absence of the president, although it obviously does not contemplate a scenario like the current one. If the text were strictly applied, Rodríguez would have to govern for 90 days. The Assembly could extend that period for another 90 and, then, there would be 30 days to call elections. For now, everything remains unknown.
The country has been in a “state of exception due to external commotion” since Saturday, when the decree signed by Maduro before being captured was activated. This Monday the real daily life began, but police checkpoints with hooded officers have also been seen. The state of emergency measures have not been reported by the Government, but the publication of the decree has already been leaked in the Official Gazette. The text orders the police to “search and capture any person involved in promoting or supporting a foreign armed attack,” which means increased surveillance and persecution.
The day also left a clear portrait of who legislates today in Venezuela. Between Chavismo, a staunch defense of its “kidnapped” leader and a declaration of war on imperialism. Meanwhile, the tiny opposition bloc took advantage of its turn in the debate to distance itself from a Parliament of which it is a part, but which it somehow considers illegitimate. They presented a letter of rejection of the agenda, refused to propose candidates for the board of directors and abstained from voting for those proposed. “The vote of this faction is an act of loyalty to a Nation that cannot wait any longer. You have not legislated for Venezuelans,” said Stalin González, of the social democratic party Un Nuevo Tiempo.
González denounced years of political silencing. “We will not be accomplices nor will we accept a façade institutionality,” he warned. “We demand the immediate cessation of persecution and the release of all political prisoners.” His words barely elicited timid applause. The opponent spoke for the group of 12 opposition parliamentarians, among whom are the leaders Henrique Capriles, Luis Emilio Rondón and Tomás Guanipa, moderate politicians who do not coincide with the strategy and ways of the leader María Corina Machado. “We did not come to sign a blank check for any transition,” insisted González, who took advantage of the platform to demand a general amnesty for political prisoners. “The fight for the Venezuela we long for is here and we will exhaust peaceful avenues for a Venezuelan solution.” His speech referred to these “difficult days for the Nation,” but did not mention the attacks or the capture of Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores.
The great absence is once again that of the opponents in exile. Dozens of leaders are still outside the country. Among them, those close to María Corina Machado, who has not returned to Venezuela since collecting the Nobel Peace Prize in mid-December. Machado, winner of the July 2024 elections with her candidate Edmundo González – also in exile – is one of the central figures of this moment, although not for the reasons she expected. After weeks of discreet contacts with Trump’s entourage, the US president himself publicly questioned his leadership after Maduro’s arrest. “It doesn’t have enough support,” he said.
Machado spoke out this Monday on X for the first time after the snub. The tone was different from that of her first tweet after Maduro’s arrest, in which she declared herself ready to take power. The opponent thanked Trump for “his firmness and determination in complying with the law,” in an operation that has violated Venezuelan sovereignty. According to Machado, the arrest of Nicolás Maduro is “an enormous step” that “inevitably and imminently” marks the beginning of a transition in Venezuela.
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