Venezuela's Supreme Court of Justice appointed the country's vice-president, Delcy Rodríguez, as acting president on 3 January even as the former president Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were to face drug trafficking and organized crime charges in a New York court. The two were nabbed by U.S. forces in a lightning, pre-dawn operation in Caracas that day. U.S. President Donald J. Trump later announced his administration would run Venezuela through an unspecified transition period, apparently dismissing any idea of handing the country over to opposition politicians. While Rodríguez was reportedly talking to U.S. officials in private, in public she immediately formed a national Defence Council and demanded her predecessor's immediate release as, she insisted, he remained the "legitimate president." Trump told the press in Florida that day that it would be "very tough" for Venezuela's leading opponent and Nobel Peace laureate María Corina Machado to lead the country's transition back to democracy, as she lacked the "support... or respect" needed for that. Machado received in contrast an early expression of support for her role in phone call from France's president. Separately in Colombia, a former conservative vice-president, Francisco Santos, suggested, speaking to the private broadcaster NTN24, that Rodríguez appeared to be a more docile option for the United States at present, adding "I am absolutely certain Delcy handed Maduro" over to the Americans. "It's going to be harder now for María Corina," he said, commenting on U.S. goals and business interests in Venezuela.
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