She calls for working with “effort and respect” to overcome differences with the US despite relations that have experienced “ups and downs”
Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, defended her leadership of the country on Tuesday in a speech to the nation, one month after the capture of her predecessor, Nicolás Maduro, in a US attack on Caracas that resulted in around one hundred deaths and has opened a new chapter in relations between the two countries.
From Miraflores Palace, Rodríguez called for the creation of a “space for dialogue, democratic coexistence, and peace” following her presidential inauguration, which took place days after Maduro’s arrest, and justified her appointment by “a ruling from the Supreme Court of Justice that designated me as interim president, a position that fell to me because I was Maduro’s executive vice president.”
The Venezuelan leader highlighted that since then, “a political dialogue has been initiated, led by the president of the National Assembly, (her brother) Jorge Rodríguez; the Commission for the Revolution of the Justice System in Venezuela has been activated,” and she boasted about the amnesty law, announced last Saturday, on which she is “working intensely,” amidst the wave of releases from prison since January 8, which NGOs estimate at around 700 people.
“What are we seeking? That the Venezuelan Parliament and the Executive Branch, which are separate powers, can come together for Venezuela, for its development, happiness, sovereignty, and independence, where all public powers are activated in accordance with the virtues of the Venezuelan Republic,” she added, before stating that “we are on track” to legislate to “benefit our country and our people.” Likewise, the interim president highlighted the “unanimous” approval of the hydrocarbons law in the new Parliament, including “the diverse, plural dissenting voices of the political dialogue in Venezuela.” “This is the Venezuela that, in unity and national cohesion, seeks the development and happiness of the Venezuelan people,” she emphasized.
In this regard, she asserted that this reform, which opens the door to oil exports, is based on “successful management models (…) approved by President Nicolás Maduro within the framework of a criminal blockade, an economic blockade” against the Latin American country. “They want legal certainty, which this organic hydrocarbons law is providing them today,” she pointed out.
Rodríguez also referred to the new relations with the United States government, arguing that the “differences” with it should be addressed “diplomatically through political dialogue.” “These days I have held telephone conversations with President Donald Trump and with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and that must be the path: respect, respect for international law,” she said.
Thus, she advocated for “building a work agenda based on our differences,” despite the “challenge” it represents because “our relations have had their ups and downs.” The president recalled her words after the January 3 attack, which she described as “a stain” on relations between Washington and Caracas, and therefore argued that “we have to work diligently and respectfully to overcome our differences.”
“Today we have seen a large march in support of the freedom of President Nicolás Maduro and the first lady (Cilia Flores), who were kidnapped that morning of January 3,” she stated, reiterating that “the country is calm, it is peaceful, but it has a national outcry: the freedom” of Maduro and his wife.
