By Mauricio Torres, CNN en Español

(CNN) — Following the capture of President Nicolás Maduro during a US military operation in Venezuela, the command of the South American country has fallen into the hands of a woman: Executive Vice President Delcy Rodríguez.

That is what Venezuela’s constitution outlines in its different scenarios anticipating a president’s absence. Under Articles 233 and 234, whether the absence is temporary or absolute, the vice president takes over the presidential duties.

Rodríguez stepped into the role on Saturday afternoon. Hours after the capture of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, she chaired a National Defense Council session, surrounded by other ministers and senior officials, and demanded the couple’s “immediate release” while condemning the US military operation.

Standing before the Venezuelan flag and wearing a stern expression, Rodríguez said the early-morning operation represents a blatant violation of international law and Venezuela’s sovereignty. She added that the action must be rejected by Venezuelans and condemned by governments across Latin America.

“We call on the peoples of the great homeland to remain united, because what was done to Venezuela can be done to anyone. That brutal use of force to bend the will of the people can be carried out against any country,” she told the council in an address broadcast by state television channel VTV.

An official with Maduro’s ‘full trust’

Rodríguez, 56, is from Caracas and studied law at the Central University of Venezuela.

She has spent more than two decades as one of the leading figures of chavismo, the political movement founded by President Hugo Chávez and led by Maduro since Chávez’s death in 2013.

Alongside her brother Jorge Rodríguez, the current president of the National Assembly, she has held various positions of power since the Chávez era. She served as minister of communication and information from 2013 to 2014 and later became foreign minister from 2014 to 2017. In that role, she defended Maduro’s government against international criticism, including allegations of democratic backsliding and human rights abuses in the country.

As foreign minister, Rodríguez represented Venezuela at forums such as the United Nations, where she accused other governments of seeking to undermine her country.

In 2017, Rodríguez became president of the Constituent National Assembly that expanded the government’s powers after the opposition won the 2015 legislative elections. In 2018, Maduro appointed her vice president for his second term. She retained the post during his third presidential term, which began on January 10, 2025, following the controversial July 28, 2024, elections. Until the president’s capture, she served as Venezuela’s chief economic authority and minister of petroleum.

Venezuela’s opposition maintains that the 2024 elections were fraudulent and that Maduro is not a legitimately elected president. They insist that the true winner was former ambassador Edmundo González Urrutia, a position supported by some governments in the region.

José Manuel Romano, a constitutional lawyer and political analyst, told CNN that the positions Rodríguez has held show she is a “very prominent” figure within the Venezuelan government and someone who enjoys the president’s “full trust.”

“The executive vice president of the republic is a highly effective operator, a woman with strong leadership skills for managing teams,” Romano said.

“She is very results-oriented and has significant influence over the entire government apparatus, including the Ministry of Defense. That is very important to note in the current circumstances,” he added.

On the path to an understanding with the US?

Hours after Maduro’s capture, and before Rodríguez addressed the National Defense Council, US Pr

CNN

By Mauricio Torres, CNN en Español

(CNN) — Following the capture of President Nicolás Maduro during a US military operation in Venezuela, the command of the South American country has fallen into the hands of Executive Vice President Delcy Rodríguez.

That is what Venezuela’s constitution outlines in its different scenarios anticipating a president’s absence. Under Articles 233 and 234, whether the absence is temporary or absolute, the vice president takes over the presidential duties.

Rodríguez – also minister for both finance and oil – stepped into the role on Saturday afternoon. Hours after the capture of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, she chaired a National Defense Council session, surrounded by other ministers and senior officials, and demanded the couple’s “immediate release” while condemning the US military operation.

Standing before the Venezuelan flag, Rodríguez said the early-morning operation represents a blatant violation of international law and Venezuela’s sovereignty. She added that the action must be rejected by Venezuelans and condemned by governments across Latin America.

“We call on the peoples of the great homeland to remain united, because what was done to Venezuela can be done to anyone. That brutal use of force to bend the will of the people can be carried out against any country,” she told the council in an address broadcast by state television channel VTV.

An official with Maduro’s ‘full trust’

Rodríguez, 56, is from Caracas and studied law at the Central University of Venezuela.

She has spent more than two decades as one of the leading figures of chavismo, the political movement founded by President Hugo Chávez and led by Maduro since Chávez’s death in 2013.

Alongside her brother Jorge Rodríguez, the current president of the National Assembly, she has held various positions of power since the Chávez era. She served as minister of communication and information from 2013 to 2014 and later became foreign minister from 2014 to 2017. In that role, she defended Maduro’s government against international criticism, including allegations of democratic backsliding and human rights abuses in the country.

As foreign minister, Rodríguez represented Venezuela at forums such as the United Nations, where she accused other governments of seeking to undermine her country.

In 2017, Rodríguez became president of the Constituent National Assembly that expanded the government’s powers after the opposition won the 2015 legislative elections. In 2018, Maduro appointed her vice president for his second term. She retained the post during his third presidential term, which began on January 10, 2025, following the controversial July 28, 2024, elections. Until the president’s capture, she served as Venezuela’s chief economic authority and minister of petroleum.

Venezuela’s opposition maintains that the 2024 elections were fraudulent and that Maduro is not a legitimately elected president. They insist that the true winner was former ambassador Edmundo González Urrutia, a position supported by some governments in the region.

José Manuel Romano, a constitutional lawyer and political analyst, told CNN that the positions Rodríguez has held show she is a “very prominent” figure within the Venezuelan government and someone who enjoys the president’s “full trust.”

“The executive vice president of the republic is a highly effective operator, a woman with strong leadership skills for managing teams,” Romano said.

“She is very results-oriented and has significant influence over

CNN

By Kevin Liptak, Isabelle Khurshudyan, Zachary Cohen, Alayna Treene, Kristen Holmes, CNN

(CNN) — It was just like watching television.

Huddled in a draped-off room at Mar-a-Lago around screens set up for his viewing pleasure — including, according to photos released by the White House, a live feed of social media messages on X — President Donald Trump watched and listened as highly trained American Delta Force soldiers rushed into Nicolás Maduro’s home in Caracas, where the Venezuelan leader was sleeping alongside his wife.

Maduro was quickly dragged into custody as he tried to flee to his steel-enforced safe room.

It was the dramatic culmination of a monthslong campaign whose ultimate goal has long been clear to those involved in its planning: to oust Maduro from power. Trump, who at points along the way voiced misgivings about the potential for unintended consequences and the chances the US could be drawn into a prolonged war, put aside any reservations and gave a green light to the operation in the days before Christmas.

It wasn’t until more than a week later that the weather cleared and conditions were right for the heavily-guarded mission. At 10:46 p.m. ET, after making a shopping excursion for marble and onyx and enjoying dinner on the Mar-a-Lago patio, the president gave the final go-ahead.

“Good luck,” Trump told the assemblage of national security officials who had convened at his gilded private club in South Florida, “and Godspeed.”

American helicopters were soon gliding across the sea, 100 feet above the dark water, toward Caracas. A couple of hours later, Maduro was in US custody, handcuffed, dressed in gray sweatpants and wearing blackout goggles, according to a picture Trump posted on Truth Social on Saturday morning.

Trump emerged Saturday to declare the United States would now “run” the country for an indeterminate future, offering strikingly little detail and claiming he wasn’t afraid of “boots on the ground.”

For a president whose political movement was fueled, in part, by resentments over two decades of bloody American foreign intervention, it was a remarkable turnabout. The president mostly glossed over the work that may lie ahead, focusing instead on obtaining access to Venezuela’s vast oil reserves and repeatedly declining to rule out a more robust US military presence if Maduro’s allies refuse to cede power.

In the hours after the strike, sources around Washington, including congressional staffers and allies of the president, privately voiced concerns about the long-term consequences of the action — both in terms of US national security and the potential political fallout for a president with low-approval ratings whose base has shown little appetite for American intervention abroad.

A strike months in the making

At Trump’s side this week in Florida have been the chief architects of the escalating pressure campaign on Maduro, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and senior adviser Stephen Miller, who were seen at dinner with the president hours before the

The post Man Dies After Being Swept into Goleta Valley Creek During Saturday Storm appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

Por Kevin Liptak, Isabelle Khurshudyan, Zachary Cohen, Alayna Treene y Kristen Holmes, CNN

Fue como ver la televisión.

Reunido en una sala apartada con cortinas en Mar-a-Lago alrededor de pantallas dispuestas para su placer visual —incluyendo, según fotos publicadas por la Casa Blanca, una transmisión en vivo de mensajes en redes sociales en X— el presidente Donald Trump observó y escuchó mientras soldados estadounidenses altamente entrenados de la Delta Force irrumpían en la casa de Nicolás Maduro en Caracas, donde el presidente de Venezuela dormía junto a su esposa.

Maduro fue rápidamente arrastrado bajo custodia cuando intentaba huir a su habitación segura reforzada con acero.

Fue la culminación dramática de una campaña de varios meses cuyo objetivo final ha sido claro para quienes participaron en su planeación: derrocar a Maduro del poder. Trump, quien en ciertos momentos expresó dudas sobre el potencial de consecuencias no deseadas y la posibilidad de que EE.UU. se viera envuelto en una guerra prolongada, dejó de lado cualquier reserva y dio luz verde a la operación en los días previos a Navidad.

No fue hasta más de una semana después que el clima se despejó y las condiciones fueron las adecuadas para la misión fuertemente custodiada. A las 10:46 p.m., hora de Miami, tras hacer una excursión de compras de mármol y ónix y disfrutar de una cena en el patio de Mar-a-Lago, el presidente dio la aprobación final.

“Buena suerte”, dijo Trump al grupo de funcionarios de seguridad nacional que se habían reunido en su lujoso club privado en el sur de Florida, “y que Dios los acompañe”.

Pronto, helicópteros estadounidenses sobrevolaban el mar, a 30 metros sobre el agua oscura, rumbo a Caracas. Un par de horas después, Maduro estaba bajo custodia estadounidense, esposado, vestido con pantalones deportivos grises y usando gafas de bloqueo de luz, según una foto que Trump publicó en Truth Social la mañana del sábado.

Trump declaró el sábado que Estados Unidos ahora “administraría” el país por un futuro indeterminado, ofreciendo sorprendentemente pocos detalles y afirmando que no temía poner “botas en el terreno”.

Para un presidente cuyo movimiento político se alimentó, en parte, de resentimientos por dos décadas de sangrientas intervenciones estadounidenses en el extranjero, fue un giro notable. El presidente pasó por alto en gran medida el trabajo que podría venir, enfocándose en cambio en obtener acceso a las vastas reservas de petróleo de Venezuela y negándose repetidamente a descartar una presencia militar estadounidense más robusta si los aliados de Maduro se niegan a ceder el poder.

En las horas posteriores al ataque, fuentes en Washington, incluidos miembros del personal del Congreso y aliados del presidente, expresaron en privado su preocupación por las consecuencias a largo plazo de la acción —tanto en términos de la seguridad nacional de EE.UU. como del posible impacto político para un presidente con bajos índices de aprobación cuya base ha mostrado poco interés por la intervención estadounidense en el extranjero.

Acompañando a Trump esta semana en Florida han estado los principales arquitectos de la campaña de presión creciente sobre Maduro, el secretario de Estado, Marco Rubio, y el asesor principal Stephen Miller, quienes fueron vistos cenando con el presidente horas antes de que comenzara la operación. Se unieron a él nuevamente cuando proclamó la victoria el sábado.

Los preparativos para la redada comenzaron a mediados de diciembre, dijeron a CNN personas familiarizadas con los planes. Pero la visión se había plantado meses antes. Incluso antes del primer ataque militar estadounidense a un barco que presuntamente transportaba drogas desde Venezuela a principios de septiembre, el plan para sacar a Maduro del poder ya estaba en marcha.

Mientras EE.UU. aumentaba visiblemente sus activos militares en el Car