JAKARTA - A high-ranking Venezuelan official on Sunday said the country's interim government was united behind President Nicolas Maduro, after his arrest with his wife in a US raid last weekend.
The image of President Maduro (63) with his eyes closed and his hands handcuffed on Saturday shocked Venezuelans. This is Washington's most controversial intervention in Latin America since the invasion of Panama 37 years ago.
President Maduro is in a New York detention center awaiting a court hearing on Monday on drug charges, after US President Donald Trump ordered his removal from Venezuela and said the US would take control of the country.
But in Caracas, top officials in Maduro's government, who have called the detention of Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores a kidnapping, still hold sway.
"Here, the unity of revolutionary forces is more than guaranteed, and here there is only one president, whose name is Nicolas Maduro Moros. Don't let anyone be provoked by the enemy's provocations," said Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello in an audio recording shared by the ruling socialist PSUV party on Sunday as he called for calm, reported Al Arabiya from Reuters (5/1).
Vice President Delcy Rodriguez - who also serves as oil minister - has taken over as interim leader with the blessing of Venezuela's highest court.
However, Vice President Rodriguez emphasized that Maduro remains the President of Venezuela.
Because of his ties to the private sector and his deep knowledge of oil, the country's main source of revenue, Rodriguez has long been considered the most pragmatic member of Maduro's inner circle.
However, he publicly denied Trump's claim that he was willing to cooperate with the Uncle Sam State.
Previously, the Venezuelan government had said for months, President Trump's pressure campaign was an attempt to seize the country's abundant natural resources, especially its oil, and officials have discussed Trump's comments on Saturday, that major US oil companies would enter.
"We are angry because in the end everything was revealed - it was revealed that they only wanted our oil," added Cabello, who has close ties to the military.
Venezuela's state-run oil company PDVSA has asked several joint ventures to reduce crude output by shutting down oil fields or groups of wells amid a paralysis in exports, three sources close to the decision told Reuters.
The OPEC nation's oil exports were halted after the US last month announced a blockade on sanctioned tankers moving in and out of Venezuelan waters and seized two oil cargoes.
Once one of Latin America's most prosperous countries, Venezuela's economy has deteriorated under Maduro, causing about one in five Venezuelans to leave the country in one of the world's largest exodus.
Meanwhile, Maduro's opponents in Venezuela were cautious about celebrating his arrest, and the presence of security forces appeared lighter than usual on Sunday.
To the disappointment of the Venezuelan opposition, Trump has flatly rejected the idea of opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado (58) to take over power, saying he lacks support.
Machado is barred from running in the 2024 election but says his ally, Edmundo Gonzalez (76) who the opposition and some international observers say won the election by a landslide, has a democratic mandate to take over the presidency.
Separately, the U.N. Security Council plans to meet on Monday to discuss the U.S. attack, which Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described as a dangerous precedent. Russia and China, both major backers of Venezuela, have criticized the U.S.
It is known that President Maduro was charged in 2020 with US charges including drug terrorism conspiracy. He has always denied any criminal involvement.
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