Did Rodríguez betray Maduro?
Now that Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro has been captured by US forces and taken to the US to answer for the alleged crimes he is charged with, many are keeping an eye on the ‘day after’ in the South American country.
Many are surprised that Caracas will not be led by Venezuela’s opposition leader and Nobel Prize Winner María Corina Machado, but rather by Maduro’s Vice-President, Delcy Rodríguez.
But reports have arisen that may solve this apparent puzzle.
Secret meetings are said to have been held in Doha, UAE, involving Rodríguez, a senior member of the UAE royal family serving as a mediator, and members of the Donald J. Trump administration.
The Telegraph reported:
“Ms. Rodríguez had reached out to Washington to present herself as a ‘more acceptable’ alternative to the Maduro regime. She now rules Venezuela with the approval of Mr. Trump.
Details of the meeting have fueled suspicions that the removal of Mr. Maduro was an inside job, planned to leave a president in power who can manage a transition without dismantling the state completely and causing turmoil and riots.”
She would be delivering a ‘Madurismo without Maduro’, although Trump has already said the US would now ‘run’ Venezuela through the transition government led by Rodríguez.
“’She’s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again’, Mr. Trump told reporters of Ms. Rodríguez. […] ‘Nobody will take power. They have a vice-president, who was selected by Mr. Maduro, who is currently the vice-president, and I guess is now the president’, he said.”
Colombia’s former vice-president, Francisco Santos Calderón told The Telegraph that ‘he was absolutely certain’ that Ms. Rodríguez betrayed Mr. Maduro and allowed him to be captured.
“’I’m absolutely certain Delcy Rodríguez handed him over. All the information we have, you start to put it together and say: ’Oh, this was an operation in which they handed him over’.
[…] Ms. Rodríguez is understood to have a “significant relationship” with members of the Qatari royal family and hides some of her assets in the country, meaning Doha was a natural choice to act as an intermediary between her and the US.”
