Delcy sworn in as Acting President of Venezuela

Raphael John-Lall

Free­lance Cor­re­spon­dent

Di­rec­tor of Par­lia­ment Fer­nan­do So­to Ro­jas yes­ter­day con­demned what he de­scribed as the “bar­bar­ic” kid­nap­ping of Venezue­lan Pres­i­dent Nicolás Maduro by the Unit­ed States mil­i­tary on Sat­ur­day.

So­to Ro­jas made the state­ment dur­ing the open­ing cer­e­mo­ny of Venezuela’s Na­tion­al As­sem­bly, as he gave the open­ing speech for the in­stal­la­tion of the new con­sti­tu­tion­al leg­isla­tive pe­ri­od for 2026-2031.

Venezue­lan gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials on Sun­day al­so ac­cused the US of ab­duct­ing Pres­i­dent Maduro. The Unit­ed States has not pub­licly re­spond­ed to the ac­cu­sa­tion.

Ac­cord­ing to So­to Ro­jas, Venezuela’s Supreme Court or­dered Vice Pres­i­dent Del­cy Ro­dríguez to as­sume the role of Act­ing Pres­i­dent fol­low­ing Maduro’s cap­ture. Ro­dríguez was sworn in yes­ter­day, while Maduro plead­ed not guilty in a US court­room, de­clar­ing him­self “in­no­cent” of fed­er­al drug traf­fick­ing charges.

“The coun­try and the world are go­ing through a spe­cial, com­plex, and de­mand­ing sit­u­a­tion. The Pres­i­dent of the Bo­li­var­i­an Re­pub­lic of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro Mo­ros, has been kid­napped by the Unit­ed States Gov­ern­ment in a bar­bar­ic and cow­ard­ly, fas­cist-style at­tack by Yan­kee im­pe­ri­al­ism, the main en­e­my of the Venezue­lan peo­ple, the re­gion, and the world, but our peo­ple will over­come this sit­u­a­tion,” So­to Ro­jas said.

Of the 285 seats in Venezuela’s Par­lia­ment, 256 be­long to rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the rul­ing So­cial­ist Par­ty and its al­lies, and on­ly 29 will be oc­cu­pied by op­po­si­tion mem­bers.

So­to Ro­jas not­ed the ab­sence of First La­dy Cil­ia Flo­res, high­light­ing her emp­ty seat in Par­lia­ment as a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Re­pub­lic. This prompt­ed en­thu­si­as­tic ap­plause from her col­leagues and guests present at the ses­sion.

“The Pres­i­dent of the Unit­ed States in­tends to be the world’s pros­e­cu­tor, judge, and po­lice­man, and from Venezuela we say to the world: he will not suc­ceed, and we will demon­strate all our sol­i­dar­i­ty so that our Pres­i­dent Nicolás Maduro re­turns vic­to­ri­ous to Mi­raflo­res. Our peo­ple will over­come this sit­u­a­tion as the Venezue­lan peo­ple and na­tion,” he de­clared.

The Act­ing Pres­i­dent’s broth­er, Jorge Ro­dríguez, was vot­ed as pres­i­dent of Par­lia­ment for the leg­isla­tive pe­ri­od of 2026 to 2027.

In or­der to guar­an­tee the re­lease of Maduro and his wife, the Act­ing Pres­i­dent re­port­ed dur­ing the Coun­cil of Min­is­ters on the cre­ation of a High Lev­el Com­mis­sion for their re­lease in which the chil­dren of the pres­i­den­tial cou­ple will par­tic­i­pate.

Ac­cord­ing to the sum­ma­ry pre­sent­ed by the Vice Pres­i­dent for Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Cul­ture, Fred­dy Ñáñez, through a broad­cast on the state chan­nel, Vene­zolana de Tele­visión (VTV), the com­mis­sion will al­so be led by him­self; the pres­i­dent of the Na­tion­al As­sem­bly (AN) and head of the Di­a­logue for Peace in Venezuela, Jorge Ro­dríguez; the Min­is­ter of For­eign Af­fairs, Yván Gil; the pres­i­dent of the Great Mis­sion Re­turn to the Home­land (GMVP), Camil­la Fab­ri; the Par­lia­ment deputy Nicolás Maduro Guer­ra (son of Maduro); Wal­ter Ja­cob Ga­vidia Flo­res, Yoss­er Daniel Ga­vidia Flo­res and Yosw­al Alexan­der Ga­vidia Flo­res (sons of the First La­dy, Cil­ia Flo­res).