A top Venezuelan official has said the country’s government would remain united behind President Nicolas Maduro, whose capture by the United States has created deep uncertainty about what’s next for the oil-rich South American nation.
Maduro is in a New York detention center awaiting a court appearance on drug charges after US President Donald Trump ordered his removal from Venezuela and said the US would take control of the country. But in Caracas, top officials in Maduro’s government, who called the detentions of Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores a kidnapping, were still in charge.
“Here the unity of the revolutionary force is more than guaranteed, and here there is only one president, whose name is Nicolas Maduro Moros. Let no one fall before the enemy’s provocations,” Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said on Sunday in an audio shared by the ruling socialist PSUV, as he urged calm.
Vice President Delcy Rodriguez – who is also oil minister – has taken over as interim leader with the blessing of Venezuela’s Supreme Court, although she has said Maduro will remain president.
Because of her connections to the private sector and deep knowledge of oil, the country’s main source of income, Rodriguez has long been considered the most pragmatic member of Maduro’s inner circle. But she has publicly contradicted Trump’s claim that she is willing to work with the United States.
Trump said Rodriguez may pay a higher price than Maduro “if she doesn’t do what’s right,” according to an interview with The Atlantic magazine on Sunday.
The Venezuelan government has said for months that Trump’s pressure campaign is an attempt to take the country’s vast natural resources, especially its oil, and officials on Saturday made much of his comment that major U.S. oil companies would move in.
“We are furious because in the end everything came to light – it was revealed that they only want our oil,” added Cabello, who has close ties to the military.
Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA is asking some joint ventures to cut crude output by shutting oil fields or groups of wells amid an export paralysis, three sources close to the decision told Reuters.
The OPEC country’s oil exports have been halted after the US last month announced a blockade of sanctioned tankers sailing in and out of Venezuelan waters and seized two oil cargoes.
Once one of the most prosperous countries in Latin America, Venezuela’s economy has sunk further under Maduro, sending about one in five Venezuelans abroad in one of the world’s largest exoduses.
Silenced streets across Venezuela
Maduro opponents in Venezuela have been wary as they celebrate his capture, and the presence of security forces at least appeared lighter than usual on Sunday.
Despite the nervous mood, some bakeries and coffee shops were open and joggers and cyclists were out and about as on a normal Sunday morning. Some citizens were busy stocking up on essential items.
“Yesterday I was very afraid to go out, but today I had to. This situation left me without food and I have to figure things out. After all, Venezuelans are used to enduring fear,” said a single mother in the oil city of Maracaibo, who said she had bought rice, vegetables and tuna. “If this is what it takes for my son to grow up in a free country, I will continue to endure the fear.”
The owner of a small supermarket in the same city said the business did not open on Saturday after attacks on military installations in Caracas and elsewhere and US special forces helicopters swooping in to seize Maduro.
“Today we work until noon because we are close to many neighborhoods. People have nowhere to buy food and we have to help them,” the shop owner said.
To the disappointment of the Venezuelan opposition, Trump has dismissed the idea of 58-year-old opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado taking over, saying she lacked support.
Machado was barred from running in the 2024 elections but has said her ally Edmundo Gonzalez, 76, who the opposition and some international observers say won that vote overwhelmingly, has a democratic mandate to take over the presidency.
It is unclear how Trump plans to police Venezuela and he risks alienating some supporters who oppose foreign interventions.
Although many Western countries opposed Maduro, there were many calls for the US to respect international law and resolve the crisis diplomatically. Questions also arose about the legality of the arrest of a foreign head of state. Democrats said they were misled at recent congressional conferences and demanded a plan for what comes next.
The UN Security Council planned to meet on Monday to discuss the US attack, which Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described as a dangerous precedent. Russia and China, both major backers of Venezuela, have criticized the US.
Maduro was indicted in 2020 on US charges including narco-terrorism conspiracy. He has always denied any criminal involvement.
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