Venezuela’s Supreme Court on Saturday has rejected the transition plan by the US president Donald Trump and ordered Vice-President Delcy Rodríguez to become the country’s interim leader following the capture of President Nicolas Maduro.
The court ruled that Rodríguez should “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 defence of the nation.”
The ruling said Rodríguez will take on “the office of President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, to guarantee administrative continuity and the comprehensive defence of the Nation.”
It added that the court will debate the matter to “determine the applicable legal framework to guarantee the continuity of the State, the administration of government, and the defence of sovereignty in the face of the forced absence of the President of the Republic.”
How world leaders reacted to US strikes, ‘capture’ of Venezuelan President
US President, Donald Trump, said on Saturday that the United States would run Venezuela until a leadership transition could be organised.
“We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” Trump said at a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
“So 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.”
Trump gave few details on how the US would “run” a sovereign nation while its vice-president, legislature and military remain in place and oppose the US move.
He said the plan would involve deploying US oil companies to Venezuela, though his embargo “on all Venezuelan oil remains in full effect,” and US forces would remain on alert.
“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, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country,” Trump said.
A plane carrying Maduro landed just before 5 pm local time at New York’s Stewart airport. He will be transported to New York City, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified.
Trump said the intervention in Venezuela would be done “with a group” mostly made up of senior US officials.
He added that the plan would focus on repairing oil infrastructure and ensuring that the people of Venezuela were “also taken care of.”
(AFP)
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