Can Maduro’s trusted lieutenant now work for Trump?

Many who watched U.S. President Donald Trump’s press conference on Saturday were likely hoping to hear dramatic details about how U.S. forces captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in a pre-dawn raid.

But arguably the more surprising moment came when Trump announced that now that Maduro was in custody, the United States would “rule Venezuela” until we could have a safe, appropriate and reasonable transition.

He added that in another unexpected development, Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Maduro’s Vice President Delcy Rodríguez and said she was “essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.”

However, at a press conference later, Rodríguez condemned Maduro’s arrest as kidnapping and emphasized that Venezuela will not become a colony.

Given these conflicting messages, many people are asking who is in charge in Venezuela right now.

According to the Venezuelan constitution, it is up to the vice president to take over in the president’s absence.

So at first glance, it seems like a logical step for the Venezuelan Supreme Court to rule that Delcy Rodríguez is the country’s acting president.

But most Venezuela observers expected a different outlook in the immediate aftermath of the US intervention.

The United States and many other countries have not recognized Nicolás Maduro as the legitimate president of Venezuela, saying the 2024 elections were rigged.

Maduro was declared president by Venezuela’s electoral council (CNE), a body dominated by government loyalists.

But the CNE never released detailed voting counts to support its claims, and copies of voting counts collected by the opposition and reviewed by the Carter Center suggested that opposition candidate Edmundo González won by a landslide.

With this in mind, the United States and dozens of other countries recognized González as president-elect.

González, a little-known former diplomat, has the support of popular opposition leader María Corina Machado, whom he replaced in the vote after her candidacy was blocked by officials in Maduro’s government.

After the election, when the security forces put pressure on the opposition, González went into exile to Spain and Machado went into exile in Venezuela.

For the past 18 months, they have been calling for Maduro to resign and lobbying for international support for their cause, especially from the United States.

Machado’s profile was boosted when he won the Nobel Peace Prize for his “struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy” in Venezuela.

Following the publicity and recognition he received after embarking on a risky journey from his hiding place in Venezuela to Oslo to accept the award, many assumed that, in any post-Maduro scenario, he would return to his homeland to take the reins of power alongside Edmundo González.

Following Maduro’s capture, Machado published a letter on social media declaring that “the hour of freedom has come.”

“Today we are ready to exercise our authority and take power,” he wrote.

But the US president stunned journalists when he declared that Machado did not have the “support or respect” to lead the country.

Trump said his team did not talk to Machado after the US attacks, but Marco Rubio did talk to Delcy Rodríguez.

Trump’s next statement may provide the answer to why the Trump administration is now Maduro’s loyal lieutenant — at least for now.

Trump quoted Rodríguez as saying “we’ll do whatever you want,” adding that he “really had no choice.”

While Maduro’s inner circle appears to still be in power in Venezuela, US officials may have thought that the smoothest transition would be achieved by someone from the current government taking over.

President Trump said at the press conference that the United States is “ready to launch a second and much larger strike if necessary,” which seems to explain why Delcy Rodríguez feels she has no choice but to follow U.S. orders.

The fact that Rodriguez was seen surrounded by some of the most powerful men in Maduro’s inner circle just hours after the president was arrested and sent out of the country appears to indicate that he, too, has won their support.

With him were his brother Jorge Rodríguez, President of the National Assembly of Venezuela, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino and the top commander of the armed forces, Domingo Hernández Lárez, and others.

That will please U.S. officials, who are concerned that Maduro’s capture would lead to a potentially destabilizing struggle for control among his inner circle.

However, Delcy Rodríguez’s message to the United States might not have been very pleasing to the United States.

He insisted that “there is only one president in Venezuela and his name is Nicolás Maduro” and described the seizure as “a kidnapping”.

“We will never again be a colony of any empire,” he insisted, vowing to “defend” Venezuela.

While he certainly doesn’t resemble the person Trump described as “willing to do the bidding of the United States,” there is speculation that Maduro may have struck a nationalist note to keep his most loyal supporters on his side.

Asked about Trump’s support for Rodríguez and his statements, Marco Rubio told CBS on Sunday that the United States will make an assessment based on his actions, not his words.

“Do I know what decisions people will make? I don’t know,” he added, seemingly implying that Rodriguez is not as confident as Trump about his desire to work with the United States.

What he was adamant about was the US’s desire to put pressure on Rodriguez’s interim government.

“I know that if they don’t make the right decisions, the United States will retain many tools of pressure to ensure that our interests are protected, and that includes, among other things, the current oil quarantine,” he said.

It was also revealed that Rubio suggested that new elections should be held in Venezuela in his interview with ABC.

“The government will emerge through a period of transition and real elections that they have not experienced before,” he told This Week.

He also appealed for “realism”, arguing that new elections would take time: “Everyone is asking why, 24 hours after the arrest of Nicolas Maduro, an election is not scheduled for tomorrow? This is ridiculous.”

New election talk will undoubtedly disappoint not only María Corina Machado and Edmundo González, but also the many Venezuelans who voted for them and are determined to see their votes honored.

While the opposition has long insisted that free and fair elections are not possible, key institutions involved in organizing these elections are filled with Maduro loyalists. Reforming these bodies will take time.

Therefore, in the short term, it looks like Venezuela will be governed by Delcy Rodríguez and Maduro’s inner circle, as long as it meets the expectations of the Trump administration.

How long this takes will depend on whether Rodriguez can find a golden middle ground between Trump’s wishes and the interests of Maduro’s base.

He may soon find himself between a rock and a hard place.