Nicolás Maduro is still the ‘legitimate president’ of Venezuela, acting leader Delcy Rodriguez says
Nicolás Maduro is still the legitimate leader of Venezuela, the country’s interim president said in an exclusive interview with NBC News.
“I can tell you that President Nicolás Maduro is the legitimate president. I tell you as a lawyer, I am. Both President Maduro and Cilia Flores, the first lady, are innocent,” interim President Delcy Rodríguez told Kristen Welker, moderator of NBC News’ “Meet the Press” in Caracas, in her first interview with a U.S. journalist since taking office.
While his predecessor is being held in a federal detention center in New York after being captured by U.S. forces last month, Rodríguez now appears to be back in President Donald Trump’s diplomatic fold.
A high-profile visit by Energy Secretary Chris Wright took place on Wednesday as the two countries ironed out the details of how Venezuela’s vast oil reserves should be distributed.
Watch more on “Meet The Press NOW” at 4 p.m. ET, “NBC Nightly News With Tom Llamas” at 6:30 p.m. ET and more. NBCNews.com
She added: “I can tell you that I am in charge of the presidency of Venezuela, as is clearly stated in the constitution of Venezuela. And given the amount of work that I have, given how busy I am, I can tell you that it is very, very hard work and we do it all day in and day out.”
The daughter of a revolutionary and sanctioned by the first Trump administration, Rodríguez’s path to power was unconventional.
In the days following Maduro’s capture on January 3, Rodríguez was highly critical of U.S. military action against him. She has since softened her tone and yielded to American pressure and demands, raising the possibility of a visit to the United States after two phone calls with Trump.
“I was invited to the United States,” Rodríguez told NBC News, adding that “we are considering coming there once we have this cooperation established and we can move forward with everything.”
Wright told Welker that cooperation with the Venezuelan government had been “incredible” and had gotten off to a “tremendous start.”
“She has provided information. Everything we know so far has been true. She has made huge positive changes, including changing the hydrocarbon law in the country in the first few weeks,” he said in an interview on Wednesday. “So I would say that the cooperation is off to a fantastic start.”
There has been more than $1 billion in Venezuelan oil sold and another $5 billion in oil sales are expected in the coming months, Wright told NBC News.
“So the Venezuelans are in charge here in Venezuela, but the United States has enormous influence over the interim authorities of Venezuela – the largest source of revenue that funds the government, that funds the government of Venezuela is now controlled by the United States,” Wright said.
“If they drive positive change that benefits Americans and improves life opportunities for Venezuelans, that money will flow. If they deviate from that path, we simply have enormous leverage.”
Yet the current government has not entirely shed the authoritarian methods of Maduro or his predecessor, the late President Hugo Chávez, who largely established the infrastructure of Venezuela’s current security state.
