▲ “I come with pain for the suffering that has been caused to the Venezuelan people, but also with honor,” said Delcy Rodríguez when sworn in as acting president before the leader of Parliament, her brother Jorge Rodríguez.Xinhua Photo
Angel Gonzalez
Special for La Jornada
La Jornada Newspaper
Tuesday, January 6, 2026, p. 3
Caracas. Delcy Rodríguez was proclaimed interim president of Venezuela before the board of directors of the National Assembly, which started a new legislature this Monday.
The former vice president of Nicolás Maduro will now lead the same Bolivarian government, but without its leader, after he was kidnapped by United States military forces in a bloody attack early last Saturday, the 3rd.
Rodríguez, a 56-year-old lawyer with specializations, master’s degrees and doctorates in France and the United Kingdom, is the first woman to serve as president of Venezuela.
She made it clear that she appeared at the event “as executive vice president of the constitutional president, Nicolás Maduro, to take the oath” in the face of the extraordinary circumstance that the country is experiencing. Likewise, he denounced the aggression of the United States and the kidnapping of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
“I come with pain for the suffering that has been caused to the Venezuelan people after an illegitimate military aggression against our homeland; I come with pain for the kidnapping of two heroes that we hold hostage in the United States, President Nicolás Maduro and the first lady from this country, Cilia Flores; I come with pain, but I must say that I also come with honor to swear in the name of all Venezuelans,” he expressed before the president of Parliament, his brother Jorge Rodríguez.
Delcy Rodríguez swore “not to rest for a minute” to guarantee the peace of the republic, as well as “the spiritual tranquility and the economic and social tranquility of our people.” He cited Simón Bolívar to commit to “guaranteeing a government that provides social happiness, political stability and political security.”
He called on all Venezuelans to join the oath “as one people” and invited all political and economic sectors to unite to “move Venezuela forward in these terrible hours of threat to the stability and peace of the nation.”
During the act, while he kept his right hand raised to swear, his left hand rested on the Constitution, which was held by deputy Nicolás Ernesto Maduro Guerra, son of President Maduro, who a couple of hours earlier had given a speech at the installation session of the National Assembly and expressed his “unconditional support” for Rodríguez.
New Parliament shows unity
This Monday the National Assembly began a new legislature that will last until 2031 and will have its first ordinary session this Tuesday afternoon. The board of directors remained almost entirely the same: Jorge Rodríguez will continue as president of Parliament and deputy Pedro Infante as first vice president. The only change was in the second vice presidency, which will now be held by representative Grecia Colmenares, current leader of the Youth of the Unified Socialist Party of Venezuela, replacing América Pérez.
The nomination speech was given by Nicolás Ernesto Maduro Guerra. His words were highly anticipated, as he had not made a public appearance since the US attack.
Maduro Guerra assured that both his father and “his second mother,” Cilia Flores, are “two great human beings, whose crime is to be revolutionaries who do not and will not sell themselves.” And he sent them a message that can be extended to the country: “the country is in good hands.”
In an emotional tone, he offered his hand and his support to the president in charge: “count on me, count on my family, count on our firmness to take the correct steps in front of this responsibility that falls to you today; we are firm in absolute unity to achieve the goal of peace in Venezuela and to move the country forward and for Nicolás and Cilia to return,” he said during his speech.
These words were applauded by the vast majority of those present and have a lot of symbolic weight, as they show that, although the US president, Donald Trump, and his secretary of state, the Cuban-American Marco Rubio, have said that Rodríguez would work under the tutelage of Washington, such statements have not generated any gesture of rupture or division within the Venezuelan government and the forces of Chavismo.
In fact, the atmosphere in the Federal Legislative Palace was dominated by consensus in condemning the aggression and the need to consolidate national unity over political differences to face the serious situation that the country is experiencing today.
Jorge Rodríguez, ratified president of the Assembly, promised to find ways to improve political understanding and affirmed that his role “as a man, as a deputy, as president of this National Assembly, will be to resort to all procedures, all platforms and all spaces to bring back Nicolás Maduro Moros, my brother, my president.”
Opposition deputies Timoteo Zambrano (Cambiemos), Luis Augusto Romero (Avanzada Progresista) and Stalin González (independent) also gave speeches. They agreed on the need for unity and peace and made clear demands of the government.
Zambrano asked to release those he describes as political prisoners and “build a serious unity that points to a great national pact that allows us an agreement for 10, 15 or 20 years to give definitive stability to the country.” Romero supported the proposal to release prisoners and stated that the country “cannot stand one more revenge.” Both told the Chavista leaders that the Bolivarian movement “cannot alone” against the threat that Venezuela suffers today.
For his part, Stalin González asserted that the country “cannot continue to be divided or polarized” and that the differences must find a common path to “see each other and agree on formulas of understanding.”
Meanwhile, a few blocks from the Parliament headquarters, on the outskirts of the Miraflores Palace, the anti-imperialist platform was held for the third consecutive day with thousands of protesters denouncing the military aggression against Venezuela.
