Who is Venezuela’s acting leader, Delcy Rodriguez?

Venezuela’s vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, has taken over as acting leader in the wake of a US raid that deposed President Nicolas Maduro over the weekend.

- MARIANA Alfaro, Samantha Schmidt, and Erin Cunningham

Rodriguez, 56, is a veteran politician, lawyer and diplomat who had served as Maduro’s vice president since 2018. She has deep family ties to leftist politics in Venezuela, though she was generally viewed as more pragmatic than other members of Maduro’s government. While Rodriguez played a key role in overhauling Venezuela’s economic policy, developing close ties with the business community, she has also been accused of corruption and human rights abuses as part of Maduro’s inner circle.

Venezuela's Supreme Court ordered Rodriguez late Saturday to assume the presidency in Maduro’s absence, a position she would hold on an interim basis. On Sunday, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino L6pez also recognized Rodriguez as acting president, saying in televised remarks that the nation’s forces must be unified in “the mission of confronting imperial aggression.” Rodriguez’s first public comments came Saturday when, in an address to the nation, she denounced the U.S. operation to take Maduro and said he is the country’s only president.

But in a Sunday night statement, Rodriguez offered a more conciliatory message, calling for “peaceful coexistence.”

“President Donald Trump, our peoples and our region deserve peace and dialogue, not war,” Rodriguez said. “This has always been President Nicolas Maduro’s message, and it is the message of all of Venezuela right now.”

Previously, Trump suggested Rodriguez was willing to work with the United States, which he said would “run” Venezuela. But on Sunday, he threatened the vice president in an interview with the Atlantic, saying that “if she doesn’t do what's right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro.”

Here's what we know about the interim Venezuelan leader.

Who is Delcy Rodriguez?