The newly re-elected head of Venezuela’s National Assembly said Monday he will pursue all legal and diplomatic channels to secure the return of President Nicolas Maduro, following U.S. military action that captured the leader from the country over the weekend.
Addressing lawmakers, Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez said restoring Maduro to office would be his top priority in the coming days, pledging to mobilize national and international mechanisms to reverse the move.
“My main function in the days ahead, as president of this National Assembly, will be to resort to all procedures, all platforms and all avenues to bring back Nicolas Maduro Moros, my brother, my president,” Rodríguez said.
Venezuela's parliament denounced the capture of Maduro while vowing support for his stand-in, due to be sworn in less than three days after a U.S. military attack that shocked Caracas.
Members of the National Assembly offered their full backing to interim leader Delcy Rodriguez – who had been Maduro's vice president – and reelected her brother Jorge Rodriguez as parliament head.
As Monday's session opened, lawmakers chanted "Let's go Nico!" – a slogan of Maduro's presidential campaign ahead of 2024 elections.
"The president of the United States, Mr Trump, claims to be the prosecutor, the judge, and the policeman of the world," senior lawmaker Fernando Soto Rojas said in an address to colleagues.
"We say: you will not succeed. And we will ultimately deploy all our solidarity so that our legitimate president, Nicolas Maduro, returns victorious to Miraflores," the presidential palace, he added.
Maduro was taken to New York after the U.S. action, a development that has drawn sharp criticism from several countries and prompted calls at the United Nations over possible violations of international law and Venezuela’s sovereignty.
Maduro declared himself "innocent" and a "decent man" as he pleaded not guilty to federal drug trafficking charges in a U.S. courtroom on Monday.
"I'm innocent. I am not guilty. I am a decent man, the president of my country," Maduro told a judge.
Maduro made his first appearance in an American courtroom Monday on the narco-terrorism charges the Trump administration used to justify capturing him and bringing him to New York.
