4th January, 2026
Venezuela’s Supreme Court has named Vice President Delcy Rodríguez as the country’s interim president, following the dramatic seizure of President Nicolás Maduro by the United States forces in what President Donald Trump described as a “large-scale strike” on Saturday.
In a late-night ruling, the court ordered Rodríguez to “assume and exercise, in an acting capacity, all the attributes, duties, and powers inherent to the office of President to guarantee administrative continuity and the comprehensive defense of the Nation.”
The judgement emphasised that Rodríguez’s assumption of office was intended to “guarantee the continuity of the State, the administration of government, and the defense of sovereignty in the face of the forced absence of the President of the Republic.”
The court also said further deliberations would be held to “determine the applicable legal framework” to ensure the stability of Venezuela’s institutions amid what it called an “extraordinary national circumstance.”
In a declaration earlier on Saturday, Trump said Washington would temporarily oversee Venezuela’s affairs until a transition government could be organized.
“We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
“We don’t want to be involved with having somebody else get in, and we have the same situation that we had for the last long period of years.”
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Trump gave no details on how the United States intended to “run” a sovereign nation whose vice president, legislature, and military remain in place and have publicly opposed Washington’s move.
However, he said the US plan involved sending major American oil companies to Venezuela to rebuild the country’s damaged energy infrastructure, while maintaining a strict embargo on Venezuelan oil exports.
“We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, and start making money for the country,” Trump said.
“Our forces will remain on alert to ensure that Venezuela’s people are also taken care of.”
