Comment by pqtyw
4 days ago
> Vice President Delcy Rodriguez is in charge
Today. She's still part of the same regime and party. It's not obvious Trump will let her stay in charge. Also the control the government had over the criminal gangs/syndicates/cartels was seemingly very weak anyway. Even if the current decapitated regime is allowed to stay it won't be very strong.
The US has long recognized Edmundo González as the rightful president of the country following the 2024 election. I imagine they will try to install him.
Alternatively there's María Corina Machado who overwhelmingly won the presidential primary for that election but wasn't allowed to run.
It’s not just the US that recognizes González, the evidence was pretty clear that he won in a landslide.
But this is not the result of a free election, more promising candidates like Machado were not able to run: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/venezuela-opposition-...
So you can't just install this person as president now.
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Some reports that she is already in Moscow.
I am not sure what you mean by "control the government had"...they are the same thing. It is like the situation with IRA and Sinn Fein, this bizarre roleplay where people (for various reasons) went to massive effort to imply they were separate when it was obvious they were led by the same people. There is no distinction between the government and cartels...the assumption that there is makes no sense at all given the latitude they have to operate.
> It's not obvious Trump will let her stay in charge.
What's he going to do, kidnap her? Oh, wait.
Low level officials can be eliminated through missile strikes.
If if had to guess, Maduro could have been take out with a GBU or two, but the US holds a grudge against him so they took him out to humiliate him, and send a message to others.
There's a big international diplomacy difference between assassinating a leader and forcibly extraditing one on drug charges.
Not too many countries will go to the mat to support a leader who was engaged in narcotics trafficking, if the US is able to present a viable case (which they seem to intend to, if he's being charged in US federal court).
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This is a coup and she is part of the conspiracy