Venezuela’s new leader faces competing pressures from the U.S. and a government loyal to Maduro

Venezuela’s act­ing Pres­i­dent Del­cy Ro­dríguez is set Thurs­day to de­liv­er her first state of the union speech, ad­dress­ing an anx­ious coun­try as she nav­i­gates com­pet­ing pres­sures from the Unit­ed States – which top­pled her pre­de­ces­sor less than two weeks ago – and a gov­ern­ment loy­al to for­mer Pres­i­dent Nicolás Maduro.

The speech comes one day af­ter Ro­dríguez said her gov­ern­ment would con­tin­ue re­leas­ing pris­on­ers de­tained un­der Maduro in what she de­scribed as “a new po­lit­i­cal mo­ment” since his ouster by the Unit­ed States ear­li­er this month.

In her ad­dress to the Na­tion­al As­sem­bly, which is con­trolled by the coun­try’s rul­ing par­ty, Ro­dríguez is ex­pect­ed to ex­plain her vi­sion for her gov­ern­ment, in­clud­ing po­ten­tial changes to the state-owned oil in­dus­try that U.S. Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump has promised to rein­vig­o­rate since Maduro’s seizure.

On Thurs­day, Trump was set to meet at the White House with Venezue­lan op­po­si­tion leader María Co­ri­na Macha­do, whose po­lit­i­cal par­ty is wide­ly con­sid­ered to have won 2024 elec­tions re­ject­ed by Maduro. But in en­dors­ing Ro­dríguez, who served as Maduro’s vice pres­i­dent since 2018, Trump has side­lined Macha­do.

Af­ter ac­knowl­edg­ing a Tues­day call with Trump, Ro­dríguez said on state tele­vi­sion that her gov­ern­ment would use “every dol­lar” earned from oil sales to over­haul the na­tion’s pub­lic health care sys­tem. Hos­pi­tals and oth­er health care fa­cil­i­ties across the coun­try have long been crum­bling, and pa­tients are asked to pro­vide prac­ti­cal­ly all sup­plies need­ed for their care, from sy­ringes to sur­gi­cal screws.

The act­ing pres­i­dent must walk a tightrope, bal­anc­ing pres­sures from both Wash­ing­ton and top Venezue­lan of­fi­cials who hold sway over Venezuela’s se­cu­ri­ty forces and strong­ly op­pose the U.S. Her re­cent pub­lic speech­es re­flect those ten­sions — vac­il­lat­ing from con­cil­ia­to­ry calls for co­op­er­a­tion with the U.S., to de­fi­ant rants echo­ing the an­ti-im­pe­ri­al­ist rhetoric of her top­pled pre­de­ces­sor.

Amer­i­can au­thor­i­ties have long railed against a gov­ern­ment they de­scribe as a “dic­ta­tor­ship,” while Venezuela’s gov­ern­ment has built a pow­er­ful pop­ulist ethos sharply op­posed to U.S. med­dling in its af­fairs.

For the fore­see­able fu­ture, Ro­dríguez’s gov­ern­ment has been ef­fec­tive­ly re­lieved of hav­ing to hold elec­tions. That’s be­cause when Venezuela’s high court grant­ed Ro­dríguez pres­i­den­tial pow­ers on an act­ing ba­sis, it cit­ed a pro­vi­sion of the con­sti­tu­tion that al­lows the vice pres­i­dent to take over for a re­new­able pe­ri­od of 90 days.

Trump en­list­ed Ro­dríguez to help se­cure U.S. con­trol over Venezuela’s oil sales de­spite sanc­tion­ing her for hu­man rights vi­o­la­tions dur­ing his first term. To en­sure she does his bid­ding, Trump threat­ened Ro­dríguez ear­li­er this month with a “sit­u­a­tion prob­a­bly worse than Maduro.”

Maduro, who is be­ing held in a Brook­lyn jail, has plead­ed not guilty to drug-traf­fick­ing charges.

Be­fore Ro­dríguez’s speech on Thurs­day, a group of gov­ern­ment sup­port­ers was al­lowed in­to the pres­i­den­tial palace, where they chant­ed for Maduro, who the gov­ern­ment in­sists re­mains the coun­try’s pres­i­dent.

“Maduro! Re­sist! The peo­ple are ris­ing!” they shout­ed. —CARA­CAS, Venezuela (AP)

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Sto­ry by REGI­NA GAR­CIA CANO | As­so­ci­at­ed Press