Maduro’s presumed successor in Venezuela is in Russia, report says

The presumed successor to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is currently in Russia, a report said Saturday.

Four sources familiar with the movements of Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez confirmed her location to Reuters, although press agency cited The Russian Foreign Ministry said the report was “false.”

Earlier in the day, Rodriguez demanded in a message broadcast on Venezuelan state television that the United States provide “proof of life” to Maduro and his wife after the president’s arrival. Donald Trump said the two men were captured in a American military operation.

“We demand that the administration of President Donald Trump immediately provide proof of life to President Maduro and the First Lady,” Rodriguez said, according to Reuters.

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Trump later shared with Truth Social a photo of Maduro seen detained, blindfolded and holding a water bottle while wearing gray sweatpants and a sweatshirt aboard the USS Iwo Jima. Trump said he would then be brought to New York.

Maduro was previously Vice President of Venezuela before taking power in 2013 after the death of Hugo Chávez, then leader.

Jorge Rodriguez, brother of Delcy and president of Venezuela’s National Assembly, remains in Caracas, according to three sources told Reuters.

Asked what Venezuela’s future holds with Maduro leaving the country, Trump said in an interview on “Fox & Friends Weekend” that “we’re making that decision now.”

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“We can’t risk letting someone else come in and pick up where they left off. So we’re making that decision now,” Trump told Fox News. “We will be very involved in it and we want to give freedom to the people. We want to, you know, have good relations. I think the Venezuelan people are very, very happy because they love the United States. You know, they were basically run by a dictatorship or worse.”

Trump later confirmed during a press conference at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida that the United States would rule Venezuela on a temporary basis.

Maduro’s successors will likely be the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner and opposition leaders María Corina Machado and Edmundo González, said an expert on Saturday.

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Jorge Jraissati, a Venezuelan president of the Economic Inclusion Group, told Fox News Digital that “Machado and Gonzalez would assume a transitional government in Venezuela.

Rachel Wolf, Benjamin Weinthal and Efrat Lachter of Fox News contributed to this report.