In Venezuela, the National Assembly supports Delcy Rodriguez while the opposition calls for amnesty after the kidnapping of Nicolas Maduro
The son of the deposed Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro Guerra, nicknamed “Nicolasito” (“little Nicolas”), re-elected deputy, brought Monday, during the installation of the new National Assembly, his “unconditional support” to the interim president, Delcy Rodriguez, while assuring that her father and mother-in-law, first lady Cilia Flores, “will come back”.
By decision of the Supreme Court, the Venezuelan vice-president, Delcy Rodriguez, who received the support of the army, assumes the interim presidency of the country. Jorge Rodriguez, brother of Mme Rodriguez and chief negotiator with the United States, was unsurprisingly re-elected president of the National Assembly, in which the government has 256 of the 286 seats, with only a few opponents having participated in the May 2025 legislative elections.
The installation of the new assembly on Monday had been planned for a long time. Standing up in front of the deputies, Jorge Rodriguez made the “V” sign with two fingers, an allusion to the sign made by Mr. Maduro in front of American cameras and widely relayed by state television.
He promised to use “all procedures” possible to obtain the return to Venezuela of Nicolas Maduro. “ My main function in the days to come (…) as president of this National Assembly will be to use all procedures, all platforms and all spaces to succeed in bringing back Nicolas Maduro Moros, my brother, my president”declared Mr. Rodriguez, during his speech on the occasion of the first session of the National Assembly following the legislative elections of May 2025, boycotted by a large part of the opposition.
Stalin Gonzalez, one of the rare opposition deputies, called for a “amnesty” and the “release of all political prisoners”. “We will not be complicit and we do not accept a facade of institutionality (…) we demand an immediate end to the persecution, the criminalization of dissent, and the release of all political prisoners. On this path of reconstruction, we consider that this moment is propitious to promote an amnesty”he said.
