While Venezuelan opposition supporters celebrated the U.S. military's removal of Nicolas Maduro to face drug trafficking charges in New York, the leaders of his administration remain in charge.
The nation's opposition – backed by consecutive Republican and Democratic administrations in the U.S. – for years vowed to immediately replace Maduro with one of their own and restore democracy to the oil-rich country. But U.S. President Donald Trump delivered them a heavy blow by allowing Maduro's vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, to assume control.
Meanwhile, most opposition leaders, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado, are in exile or prison.
"They were clearly unimpressed by the sort of ethereal magical realism of the opposition, about how if they just gave Maduro a push, it would just be this instant move toward democracy," David Smilde, a Tulane University professor who has studied Venezuela for three decades, said of the Trump administration.
The U.S. seized Maduro and first lady Cilia Flores in a military operation Saturday, removing them both from their home on a military base in Venezuela's capital, Caracas. Hours later, Trump said the U.S. would "run" Venezuela and expressed skepticism that Machado could ever be its leader.
"She doesn't have the support within, or the respect within, the country," Trump told reporters. "She's a very nice woman, but she doesn't have the respect."
Ironically, Machado's unending praise for the American president, including dedicating her Nobel Peace Prize to Trump and her backing of U.S. campaigns to deport Venezuelan migrants and attack alleged drug traffickers in international waters, has lost her some support at home.
Machado rose to become Maduro's strongest opponent in recent years but his government barred her from running for office to prevent her from challenging – and likely beating – him in the 2024 presidential election. She chose retired Ambassador Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia to represent her on the ballot.
Officials loyal to the ruling party declared Maduro the winner mere hours after the polls closed but Machado's well-organized campaign stunned the nation by collecting detailed tally sheets showing González had defeated Maduro by a 2-to-1 margin.
The U.S. and other nations recognized Gonzalez as the legitimate winner.
However, Venezuelans identify Machado, not Gonzalez, as the winner, and the charismatic opposition leader has remained the voice of the campaign, pushing for international support and insisting her movement will replace Maduro.
In her first televised interview since Maduro's capture, Machado effusively praised Trump and failed to acknowledge his snub of her opposition movement in the latest transition of power.
"I spoke with President Trump on Oct. 10, the same day the prize was announced, not since then," she told Fox News on Monday. "What he has done, as I said, is historic, and it's a huge step toward a democratic transition."
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday seemed to walk back Trump's assertion that the U.S. would "run" Venezuela. In interviews, Rubio insisted that Washington will use control of Venezuela's oil industry to force policy changes and called its current government illegitimate. The country is home to the world's largest proven crude oil reserves.
Neither Trump nor Rodriguez has said when, or if, elections might take place in Venezuela.
Venezuela's constitution requires an election within 30 days whenever a president becomes "permanently unavailable" to serve. Reasons listed include death, resignation, removal from office or "abandonment" of duties as declared by the National Assembly. That electoral timeline was rigorously followed when Maduro's predecessor, Hugo Chavez, died of cancer in 2013.
On Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a close Trump ally who traveled with the president on Air Force One on Sunday, said he believes an election will happen but did not specify when or how.
"We're going to build the country up – infrastructure-wise – crescendoing with an election that will be free," the South Carolina Republican told reporters.
However, Maduro loyalists in the high court Saturday, citing another provision of the constitution, declared Maduro's absence "temporary," meaning there is no election requirement. Instead, the vice president – which is not an elected position – takes over for up to 90 days, with a provision to extend to six months if approved by the National Assembly, which is controlled by the ruling party.
In its ruling, Venezuela's Supreme Court made no mention of the 180-day limit, leading to speculation that Rodriguez could try to cling to power as she seeks to unite ruling party factions and shield it from what would certainly be a stiff electoral challenge.
Machado on Monday criticized Rodriguez as "one of the main architects of torture, persecution, corruption, narco-trafficking ... certainly not an individual that can be trusted by international investors."
Even if an election takes place, Machado and Gonzalez would first have to find a way back into Venezuela.
González has been in exile in Spain since September 2024 and Machado left Venezuela last month when she appeared in public for the first time in 11 months to receive her Nobel Prize in Norway.
Ronal Rodriguez, a researcher at the Venezuela Observatory in Colombia's Universidad del Rosario, said the Trump administration's decision to work with Rodriguez could harm the nation's "democratic spirit."
