File Photo: Nicolás Maduro, his vice-president Delcy Rodríguez, left, and his wife, Cilia Flores. AP
Earlier on Saturday, President Donald Trump at the presidential press conference in the US said he understood she would be sworn in as president of Venezuela, following the US capture of Maduro in a military operation in caracas, and that she had, essentially, agreed to cooperate with the US because she had no “choice."
On Saturday evening, Rodriguez, a staunch loyalist of Maduro, took on state television and across radio stations, saying President Maduro had been kidnapped and calling for him and his wife to be freed.
Rodriguez called the US operation against her country “an illegitimate and illegal kidnapping," adding that her government was “ready to defend Venezuela.”
The VP asserted “we will never again be a colony,” called for Latin American unity, and warned, “What they did to Venezuela today they could do to any country.”
The statements came as Rodríguez convened a national defense council meeting that included Jorge Rodríguez, president of the National Assembly; Caryslia Beatriz, president of the Supreme Court; Attorney General Tarek William Saab; and Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López.
During her address, Rodríguez presented a decree declaring a state of external emergency and demanded the immediate release of Maduro and the First Lady.
She said the United States launched an “unprecedented military aggression” at approximately 1:58 am. on 3 January, and asserted that Caracas had previously warned that Washington’s true objective was “regime change” in Venezuela and “the seizure of the country’s energy, mineral, and natural resources.”
Rodríguez added that those who carried out the armed aggression “will pay for it.”
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