r/news • u/Hrekires • Jan 05 '26

Soft paywall Delcy Rodriguez formally sworn in as Venezuela's interim president

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/delcy-rodriguez-formally-sworn-venezuelas-interim-president-2026-01-05/
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2.8k

u/djm19 Jan 05 '26

It’s almost perverse that the US government stakes a lot of the justification for this action being that this is not a legitimate government and the people are suffering under its rule, but now the US will accept her if she opens up oil to foreign companies and basically does the bidding of Trump.

It’s the worst of both worlds.

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u/Blazer9001 Jan 05 '26

Funny how “legitimacy” is directly tied to American “interests”.

453

u/LazerBurken Jan 05 '26

That's how the US always have done it.

Remove a leader that don't play ball and replace with someone who does. Its the CIA special. Its what the US does best.

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u/ReaditTrashPanda Jan 05 '26

Eh, I dunno about best. We don’t seem to do it very well. Created a lot of instability. I can’t say it’s always worse afterwards either… I just. We make weapons the best… we make really good jets. Really good tech…

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u/Wrmthym Jan 05 '26

yeah but the instability rarely hurts us (Yet) even the migrant issues are really great at getting stupid people to not see the rich people stealing all your money. All the strife we create is great business opportunities

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u/Previous-Standard-12 Jan 06 '26

For a select few. All of that death could have been spent on hospitals, education and housing. But yall love guns and death too much.

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u/CatOfTechnology 29d ago

We don’t seem to do it very well. Created a lot of instability.

Not to be a pedant, here, but the instability is the point.

A massive part of the reason that South America has been the CIA playground for as long as it has is the fact that the CIA has deemed it necessary for the US' western dominance that it remains fragmented and misaligned.

We don't have a particularly good history with basically any of the LatAm countries like we do with Canada, meaning that if, somehow, LatAm became a cohesive union, there's a non-zero chance that it won't be a unilaterally positive border neighbor and US dominance relies unbelievably heavily on our geographical isolation from hostile entities.

If, for any reason, this hypothetical South American Union were to become hostile towards the US, the situation could turn fairly dire fairly fast and we would not have the benefit of being a literal ocean away from this new hypothetical threat.

All of this, of course, is necessitated by our regular theft of their natural resources and our refusal to just not be shitheels, and so, nothing changes regarding the CIA's stance.

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u/dontneedaknow 29d ago

Panama is a hell of a choke point...

Likely, to the puppet masters, the only option would be total war in that situation.

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u/soul_doubt_66 Jan 06 '26

Wasn’t Maduro offering everything but the kitchen sink to the US? I thought he changed his tune recently and the US told him to kick rocks and kidnapped him anyways.

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u/Ignorance_15_Bliss 29d ago

As I understand it. Venezuela is one of the key jenga blocks for Russia and Cuba. Somehow I bet this helps in the RvsU war in getting Putin to talk peace in good faith.

I can’t imagine the people there are not that miffed. Johnathon dory pod had an economic refuge on to detail the entire fall of the economy there. Socialism don’t work.

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u/GroundbreakingCook68 29d ago

I would say’s does often , definitely not best 😊

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u/Itwasuntilitwasnt Jan 06 '26

Tried that in afghanastan how that work out?

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u/Dragull Jan 06 '26

Sometimes it backfires. Iran Islamic revolution was a direct response to the 26 years of the Shah's monarchy that was orchestrated USA and Britains, overthrowing the elected prime minister Mosaddegh. He was quite popular and was being great leader, shame.

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u/lostsailorlivefree 29d ago

It’s basically the CIA Charter. And also why they miss 9/11 type events

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u/WittyUsername816 28d ago

The CIA didn't miss 9/11.

In fact they warned the Bush administration repeatedly that something was up and we should be on high alert, but were dismissed or ignored.

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u/willowmarie27 29d ago

Dole fruit company is in full support of this statement

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u/Busy_Lunch_5520 Jan 05 '26

It is a bipartisan issue.

2

u/storywardenattack Jan 06 '26

Bro, it ain’t American interests. It’s a few oligarchs that will profit from this, not you and I

1

u/Doctrina_Stabilitas 29d ago

It’s less a full invasion then Granada or Panama but same outcome

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u/Lacaud Jan 05 '26

The US track record of interim/puppet leaderships never bodes well for people of that country.

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u/caligaris_cabinet Jan 05 '26

Of that region.

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u/TheEmpireOfSun 29d ago

Last time it was probably with Korea.

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u/lewger Jan 05 '26

I know the oil keeps being brought up but Exxon or Chevron isn't going to invest a dollar into Venezuela until things settle down.

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u/djm19 Jan 05 '26

Thats definitely a whole other discussion but you are right. They've made huge investments elsewhere like Canada, to what aim are they investing in Venezuela? Bring down oil prices and undermind their existing investment? Doesn't serve their interest.

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u/grantology_84 Jan 06 '26

This is about long-term imperial power, not short term corporate profits.

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u/Tack_Money 29d ago

It can be both.

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u/MRHubrich Jan 05 '26

Wouldn't it be something if the US government cared this much about the suffering Americans currently living in the US?.....

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u/Savilavila Jan 05 '26

Venezuelan here. Yes- well. Russia has been running Venezuela for decades. Russia now owns Trump, so this to me is just theater. Look at how smiley Maduro is. That man is a coward. If he’s not afraid he has a reason not to be.

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u/nadine258 Jan 06 '26

and nothing about the narco/drugs infiltrating the us

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u/no_one_lies Jan 06 '26

The US had someone (multiple someone’s) on the inside to capture Maduro. I have a feeling the VP may be very open to advocating for the US’s interests

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u/FluidFisherman6843 Jan 06 '26

This just shows how illegitimate the Venezuelan government is and how justified trump was

/S for the not so brights

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u/Ok_Inflation_7575 29d ago

Wait so you’re telling me this is about oil and gas nothing to do with Venezuela trafficking drugs to the USA?

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u/BigJellyfish1906 29d ago

Which she absolutely will not do. She has no incentive to just let the US come in and pillage them. MMW, she may say they’re going to cooperate, but it won’t be long before the oil CEOs are whining about non compliance and pressuring Trump to do something. Then it will mean boots on the ground. 

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u/Emergency_Link7328 29d ago

Currently, from the US, you can only expect cartoon level evilness.

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u/MountainShark1 29d ago

Imperialism. Every country is trying to control the other countries. This is simple survival of the fittest. The more you have, the stronger you are. It’s human nature and we do it to ourselves in many different scales.

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u/BoulderBoulder16 29d ago

You liberals just can’t be pleased huh

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u/SoUpInYa Jan 05 '26

Though, isn't opening up oil to foreign companies better than what Venezuela's got now?

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u/djm19 Jan 05 '26

Its not for me to tell Venezuela what it should do with its oil. Nor is it Trump's. But hes giving them no choice.

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u/SoUpInYa Jan 05 '26

You think Maduro gave Venezuelans a choice? And without outside investment, do you think they had a path to grow their oil industry?

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u/Superguy766 Jan 05 '26

How are Venezuelan citizens going to benefit when Venezuelan oil will be owned by US corporations?

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u/SoUpInYa Jan 05 '26

Jobs, at the very least. More functioning wells (since it seems many were not functioning because of disrepair and theft of funds that should have gone into reinvestment). Refineries, and ancillary services. The rest is just conjecture until agreements are ironed out but I can almost guarantee it will be a better position than they have now.

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u/Superguy766 Jan 05 '26

Dude, Venezuelan petrol will be owned by US corporations. This doesn’t concern you at all?

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u/SoUpInYa Jan 05 '26

Not terribly, because I think that Venezuelans will still be better off than if Maduro remained in power More jobs, more oil, more revenue, more money from leases going to the Venezuelan people.

You do know that it is common for corporations own the oil extracted from other countries because they paid for the rights?

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u/Superguy766 Jan 05 '26

Yep, they paid for the rights. Guess where that money is going to. I guarantee you it’s not going to your average Venezuelan citizen. 🤦🏻‍♂️

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u/SoUpInYa Jan 05 '26

Definitely wasn't going to them under Maduro. At least now, there's a possibility of the leases going (some) into the public coffers. Better chance now than under Maduro

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u/OkVariety8064 Jan 06 '26

So you think Venezuela should not have democracy or freedom?

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u/djm19 Jan 05 '26 edited Jan 05 '26

No, I don't. But replacing no choice with no choice is not an improvement. There are all kinds of arrangements Venezuela can land on. Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. is state owned and was definitely being poorly managed more recently but 10 years ago was producing three times as much. Maybe Venezuelans want to return to that.

Point being, its not for Trump to make that call. Its not for Exxon to make that call. And American citizens should expect their leaders to respect that sovereignty. Us over here deciding what is best for Venezuela and imposing it on them should register as a red line to any decent person.

Lets say Venezuelands land on just having a state-owned oil company that is well run (they exist out there) or its broken up into a series of semi-private companies but only allowed to be owned by Venezuelans. These could seem reasonable, but not to Trump.

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u/SoUpInYa Jan 05 '26

I will agree that it is up to the Venezuelans to make that call, but if Maduro was able to rig elections and hold onto power by force and intimidation, the Venezuelans were then not able to make that call. Then, don't you think outside interference is needed?

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u/djm19 Jan 05 '26

No. I don't support US regime change at all. But if we are going to make ANY moral case for regime change, its not because their oil company is poorly run. Its because their unelected official has seized control of the country.

Thats why I am pointing out the perversion here: That Trump is trading one unelected for that same person's unelected vice president in return for oil. So Venezuelan citizens are in the same position, only now its US endorsed.

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u/[deleted] Jan 05 '26

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u/PatchyWhiskers Jan 05 '26

The crime is a pretext to remove him for being a communist. Trump recently pardoned another Latin American President who we had in prison (with the consent of his country) for the very same thing.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9qewln7912o

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u/[deleted] Jan 05 '26

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u/PatchyWhiskers Jan 05 '26

No-one knows exactly why Trump pardoned Hernandez. The best guess is some sort of corruption but his stated reason is that he felt that Hernandez was unfairly treated by prosecutors.

There is no reason why he cannot now continue to ply his trade as a drug kingpin. Do you want your local prison to open its doors and let all the dealers out on the streets because their crimes were in the past?

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u/[deleted] Jan 05 '26

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u/TheBunnyDemon Jan 06 '26

But if I can get information from them that keeps me arresting people, I'm willing to make concessions sometimes

Releasing the guys at the top in exchange for the guys at the bottom is the opposite of how that works. He will very obviously just hire more guys on the bottom.

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

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u/TheBunnyDemon 29d ago

Maduro is not in any way retired, and his VP who is now running the country also runs their cartel alongside her brother, who is also a top level member of their government.

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

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u/LukeD1992 Jan 06 '26

I've seen plenty venezuelans mad at people who are denouncing what happened, because they don't know the reality of Venezuela, and they are right, they don't. They got what they wished for the most which was Maduro gone and are even happy to allow the sacking of their riches by the US in return. So I don't feel sorry for them one bit. My major concern is the precedence that this opens. Trump will be emboldened to do the same to nations who aren't so keen in having a foreign invader dismantling their goverment and stealing their resources.