President Donald Trump’s administration is working quickly to establish a pliant interim government in Venezuela following the dramatic capture of Nicolás Maduro, according to US officials, prioritizing administrative stability and repairing the country’s oil infrastructure over an immediate turn to democracy.
Officials described a multifold effort using American military and economic leverage to influence the remnants of Maduro’s regime left inside Venezuela. In particular, US officials have focused squarely on the country’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, who Trump advisers identified weeks ago as a viable, if nonpermanent, alternative to Maduro.
Senior-level US officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, top aide Stephen Miller and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, have been working to develop a structure for Venezuela’s government in the wake of Maduro’s ouster, according to a senior US official. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and Secretary of Energy Chris Wright have been tasked with convincing American energy companies to return to Venezuela and its aging oil infrastructure.
The clearer picture that began emerging Sunday of what Trump meant when he claimed during an extraordinary news conference the United States would “run” Venezuela was essentially one in which the US relies on the massive armada floating offshore to ensure whoever is in charge does what the Trump administration wants.
Many questions remained about how, precisely, the US plans to establish what amounts to a temporary protectorate in a country of 31 million people that is roughly twice the size of California. There has been no official American presence in Venezuela since the US Embassy closed in Caracas in 2019.
Continue reading the complete article on the original source
