Venezuela’s new president vows to ‘confront aggression’ in chilling warning to Trump | World | News
Venezuela’s new president appears to have warned the US that his country is ready for war as he vows to fight against “imperial aggression.” The warning comes after Donald Trump’s decision to launch deadly strikes on Venezuela and take away its leader, Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, to stand trial in the US.
Acting Venezuelan President Rodriguez has officially been sworn in following the US detention of former President Maduro. She has criticised the US military action as “brutal aggression” and called for Maduro’s immediate release. Rodriguez said defiantly on state television as she was flanked by top civilian officials and military commanders: “There is only one president in this country, and his name is Nicolas Maduro.”
The Venezuelan Defense Ministry has placed its forces on Full Operational Readiness to counter what it calls “imperial aggression.” President Trump said the US troops injured during the operation to capture President Maduro are “in good shape,” and administration officials plan to brief selected lawmakers on January 5.
In response, Delcy Rodríguez has created a commission to work toward securing the release of Maduro and his wife. A new emergency decree in Venezuela instructs police to detain anyone involved in promoting or supporting a US attack. Meanwhile, the National Assembly has chosen Jorge Rodríguez as its President and Pedro Infante as Vice President.
At the UN Security Council, Panama called for a political transition in Venezuela under opposition figures Edmundo González Urrutia and María Corina Machado.
After Maduro was taken into custody on Saturday, Rodríguez called on the US government to show proof that both Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, are alive, delivering a forceful condemnation of the American operation.
“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 said in an address broadcast by the state television channel VTV.
Meanwhile, Nicolás Maduro, pleaded “not guilty” to all four counts against him today, including drug-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine-importation conspiracy, and possession of machine guns and destructive devices.
“I am innocent. I am not guilty. I am a decent man,” Maduro told judge Alvin Hellerstein in court today.
