Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez vowed on Wednesday to continue releasing prisoners detained under former President Nicolás Maduro
– Rodríguez struck a conciliatory tone and said the Venezuelan government was entering a “new political moment.”
– She offered assurances that the process of releasing hundreds of detainees “has not yet concluded.“
– “This opportunity is for Venezuela and for the people of Venezuela to be able to see reflected a new moment where coexistence, where living together, where recognition of the other allows building and erecting a new spirituality,” Rodríguez said.
– Flanked by her brother and National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez, and Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, she also criticised organisations that advocate on behalf of prisoners’ rights.
– She pledged “strict” enforcement of the law and credited Maduro with starting the prisoner releases as a signal that her government meant no wholesale break from the past.
– “Crimes related to the constitutional order are being evaluated,” she said
– “Messages of hatred, intolerance, acts of violence will not be permitted.”
– Despite sanctioning her for human rights violations during his first term, President Donald Trump enlisted Rodríguez to help secure US control over Venezuela’s oil sales.
– To ensure the former Maduro loyalist does his bidding, he threatened Rodríguez with a “situation probably worse than Maduro,” who faces federal charges of drug-trafficking.
– In endorsing Rodríguez, Trump sidelined María Corina Machado, the leader of Venezuela’s opposition who won a Nobel Peace Prize last year for her campaign to restore the nation’s democracy.
– After dismissing her as lacking the sufficient support and respect to govern, Trump said he’ll meet Machado in the Oval Office on Thursday for the first time since Maduro’s capture.
– The meeting is seen as a key opportunity for Machado to press Trump on her hopes for a democratic transition in Venezuela.
– Rodríguez now walks a tightrope, navigating pressures from both Washington and her hardline colleagues who hold direct sway over the security forces.
– She did not address human rights groups’ complaints over her government’s lack of transparency and instead criticised such groups as having “tried to sell falsehoods about Venezuela.”
– “There will always be those who want to fish in troubled waters,” she said, adding that her speech was as an effort to counter false narratives.
– Rodríguez served as Maduro’s vice president since 2018, running Venezuela’s feared intelligence service and managing its crucial oil industry.