Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, said she no longer intends to follow instructions from Washington. She made the remarks while addressing oil workers; the speech was broadcast by Venezuela’s state television on Sunday.
Rodríguez’s statement came just over three weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump announced the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in what he described as a daring military operation in Caracas. He subsequently said the United States would take control of the country’s oil industry and issue directives to Venezuelan authorities.
“Enough of Washington issuing orders to Venezuelan politicians,” Rodríguez told a group of oil workers in the city of Puerto La Cruz, CNN reported. “Venezuelan politics must resolve our disagreements and internal conflicts on its own. This republic has paid a very high price for having to confront the consequences of fascism and extremism in our country.”
After Maduro was captured and transferred to New York to stand trial on criminal narcotics charges, Trump approved keeping Rodríguez in her post. Last week, he told reporters that she was “so far showing very strong leadership,” had “done a very good job,” and was working with the United States on supplying millions of barrels of oil “to the United States.”
“We’re working with them, and part of it will go to them, and part—to us,” Trump said aboard Air Force One on the return flight from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “It will be split, and our country will become richer, which means our taxes will go down, and they’ll be better off too. Venezuela will be better than ever. Even though we are, you know, taking a very fair share.”
Trump has so far refrained from calling for new elections in Venezuela, but in recent weeks he has taken a more favorable view of opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado, after previously claiming that she lacked support inside the country. On January 15, Trump met with Machado at the White House, where she presented him with his 2025 Nobel Peace Prize—an award the president had openly sought and actively campaigned for.