In her first speech as Venezuela’s interim leader, Delcy Rodríguez lambasted the US and pledged fealty to Nicolás Maduro. “She’s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again,” Trump said. The 56-year-old former labour lawyer struck a defiant tone in her televised speech on Saturday night. The opposition leader mobilised Edmundo González’s winning presidential campaign last year – Maduro ignored the result – and won the Nobel peace prize. Rodríguez said Venezuela “will never again be anyone’s colony – neither of old empires, nor of new empires, nor of empires in decline”.

Source: The Guardian January 05, 2026 02:14 UTC