A top Venezuelan official declared on Sunday that the country’s government would stay unified behind President Nicolas Maduro, whose capture by the U.S. has sparked deep uncertainty about what is next for the oil-rich South American nation.
Maduro is in a New York detention center awaiting a Monday court appearance on drug charges, after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered his removal and said the U.S. would take control of Venezuela.
But in Caracas, top officials in Maduro’s government, who have called the detentions of Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores a kidnapping, were still in charge.
“Here, the unity of the revolutionary force is more than guaranteed, and here there is only one president, whose name is Nicolas Maduro Moros. Let no one fall for the enemy’s provocations,” Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said in an audio shared by the ruling PSUV socialist party on Sunday as he urged calm.
Vice President Delcy Rodriguez – who also serves as oil minister – has taken over as interim leader with the blessing of Venezuela’s top court, though she has said Maduro remains president.
Because of her connections with the private sector and her deep knowledge of oil, the country’s top source of revenue, Rodriguez has long been considered the most pragmatic member of Maduro’s inner circle, but she has publicly contradicted Trump on his claims she is willing to work with the U.S.
The Venezuelan government has said for months that Trump’s pressure campaign is an effort to take possession of the country’s vast natural resources, especially its oil, and officials have made much of Trump’s Saturday comments on the subject, when he said major U.S. oil companies would move in.
“We are outraged because in the end everything was revealed — it was revealed that they only want our oil,” added Cabello, who has close ties to the military.
Venezuela’s state-run oil company PDVSA is asking some of its joint ventures to cut back crude output by shutting down oilfields or groups of wells amid an export paralysis, three sources close to the decision told Reuters.
Oil exports from the OPEC country remain at a standstill since the U.S. last month announced a blockade on sanctioned tankers moving in and out of Venezuelan waters and the seizure of two oil cargoes.
Once one of the most prosperous nations in Latin America, Venezuela’s economy nosedived further under Maduro, sending about one in five Venezuelans abroad in one of the world’s biggest exoduses.
Source: Reuters
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