After Maduro’s ouster, two powerful women could vie for control of Venezuela

With the former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro in detention in New York, his former vice-president Delcy Rodriguez – a Maduro loyalist and regime figurehead for nearly eight years – was sworn in as Venezuela’s interim president.

Since Maduro’s ouster, Rodríguez has struck a delicate balance, telling the United States she wants lasting cooperation while telling Venezuelans she condemns Maduro’s capture as kidnapping.

As vice president in 2024, she supported election results declared fraudulent by international observers. CBS News was in Caracas with the opposition leader Maria Corina Machado when Maduro declared victory.

“This is a grotesque violation of our popular will, and everyone knows it,” Machado said in July, after the elections.

Shortly after, Maduro threatened Machado with arrest and she went into hiding. But in October, after winning the Nobel Peace Prizeshe seemed confident.

“Regime change was already demanded by the Venezuelan people,” Machado told CBS News.

Machado was rescued from Venezuela in a tense and secret operation in December and taken to Norway to reunite with her family and receive her Nobel Prize.

But Venezuela’s political future remains uncertain. President Trump says the United States is “in charge” and says that although he hasn’t spoken directly to him, Rodríguez is being cooperative. He said The Atlantic Sunday, “if she does not do what is right, she will pay a very high price, probably higher than Maduro’s.”

Asked why Machado had not been named to lead the country, Mr. Trump said on Saturday that she lacked the support and respect from the Venezuelan people that she needed to lead them.

Mr Trump hinted at possible elections in Venezuela at a later stage. Some, including Republican Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida, believe Machado could win over Venezuelans. Diaz-Balart told CBS News that she would “probably” win the election, noting that she had “a history of fighting against this regime.”